British Army veteran Steve Knighton holds a collection tin as British prime minister Andy Burnham makes a donation to the Poppy Appeal on 22 October. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesAndy Burnham has been meeting armed forces veterans and Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal collectors to mark the start of the yearâs campaign.Burnham welcomed them to Number 10 Northâs office in central Manchester, contrary to the usual convention of making a donation to the cause on the steps of Number 10 in Downing Street.Good morning from London, where weâre less than a week from Andy Burnham and John Healeyâs first budget, and the Government has been telling people to build up 72 hours of supplies in case of a disaster.
Weâll be bringing you updates throughout the day. Iâm Harry Taylor.The Government has said that will not be putting together a âshopping listâ for the public to buy in anticipation of a disaster, despite launching a campaign on Thursday which told people to stock up on supplies.Treasury minister James Murray has been on the broadcast round this morning where has been asked about the announcement yesterday that people should assemble three days of supplies.Itâs come after repeated warnings in the last 18 months about cyber-attacks from overseas that could affect key systems.Itâs also timely as 32 Government services were taken offline yesterday after millions of attempts to exploit a weakness in numerousâ websites coding.However Murray told Times Radio this morning: âThis is not about the Government sending out a shopping list to everyone in the country.âThis is about putting the right information there on the government website, having an information campaign so that people are aware about it and then people taking the right choices for themselves about what they need to make sure they have supplies of at home.âMeanwhile itâs five days until Healeyâs budget, and Murray was asked on BBC Radio 4 whether he would be reducing red tape for business.He said cutting âpointless bureaucracyâ was âat the heart of what the Chancellor is going to be thinking aboutâ.Healey said the Treasury would aim to cut ÂŁ800m of red tape for businesses at the budget, including reduced reporting requirements.

