Independent leads Burnham's speech on a first-home scheme, Reuters on stable public finances, Observador on Brexit 'drift'

Three leads, one speech. We hold three reports on Andy Burnham's speech of 26 September. Each one opens on a different pledge.

The money. The Independent says funding "is expected to come from reprioritising existing government budgets". It names no department and no sum. The scheme would take money from something else, and no report says what.

Who is heard. All three reports carry only Burnham. None quotes a buyer, a lender, a builder or anyone from the opposition.

How each is written. The Independent's headline gives the scheme's aim, "to help first-time buyers onto housing ladder", as fact rather than as the government's claim. Observador puts "drift" and "division" in quotation marks but leaves the link to Brexit outside them. So it is unclear whether blaming Brexit is Burnham's view or the paper's.

What is not settled - What the scheme costs, and whether it is a loan, a grant or a guarantee. - Which budgets are cut to pay for it. - How many first-time buyers it would reach. - Whether each claim holds. Each one rests on a single report, and the Reuters report we hold is one headline.

What this is about. Britain's new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has set out his first economic pledges. One of them is help for people buying their first home.

How it got here. In June 2016 the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union. It left on 31 January 2020. In the years after the vote the Conservative Party changed prime minister several times, and there was a long argument over trade with Europe. According to Observador, Burnham's line about a decade of "drift" and "division" refers to that period.

Labour won the general election of July 2024 under Keir Starmer. Burnham is a former Labour cabinet minister and had been Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017. Observador calls him prime minister. We hold no report on how he took office, so we do not describe it here.

Why public finances come up. In autumn 2022, Liz Truss's government announced tax cuts without saying how they would be paid for. The market for UK government debt was shaken, and she left office within weeks. Since then every government has been under pressure to show it will not borrow its way into the same trouble. That is the background to a pledge of "stability in public finances".

Why first homes. Help for first-time buyers is not new. The Help to Buy equity loan ran in England from 2013 to 2023. Such schemes are disputed. Supporters say they help people buy a first home. Critics say they can push prices up when too few homes are being built.

The actors. The government, which promises help without new borrowing. First-time buyers, whom the scheme is meant for. And whoever runs the budgets that The Independent says will be "reprioritised" to pay for it. None of the reports names them.

Where it stands. The scheme has been announced. No report we hold gives its cost, its form or who pays for it.