Andy Burnham has just sat down for an interview with BBC Radio Manchester. Finally willing to (half) answer some questions…
On Brexit, he attempted to push back on the “skewed coverage” of his position, and insisted it wouldn’t be a priority for the next “five or ten years“. Damage control…
“I’ve not said that we should now focus on rejoining and I’m not saying that. We had a vote and we shouldn’t keep rerunning the arguments linked to that vote. We’ve got to focus relentlessly domestically. Let’s get this country functioning again… Let’s not worry then about our relationship with other places until we fix our own situation… I’m on the record as saying in my lifetime I would like to see us rejoin.”
“The country has to fix itself… and that has got to be our relentless priority in the next 5 or 10 years that’s where we’ve got to focus, that’s what we’ve got to get right before we focus on our relationships with other places.”
He also gave a wishy-washy answer on Net Zero:
“I’m not saying I’ve completely made a view on the North Sea issue. I’m listening to what people are saying about that… [It’s] not in our interest to talk about time-limited industries.”
The Mail’s Christian Calgie trekked up to Makerfield this week to follow Reform on the campaign trail. By coincidence, he collided with Andy Burnham in a café. It did not go well. Burnham decided to turn it into a lecture on ‘boundaries’ (during an historic by-election in which he’s trying to defenestrate the Prime Minister)…
Calgie writes today:
“He did not seem to want to engage. In fact he appeared furious and fumed: ‘You don’t go into a place like that unannounced! You’re out of order there!’
When I protested that I was merely on Nigel Farage’s campaign trail and that the encounter had not been planned, Mr Burnham raged: ‘I know who you are but you should not do that. You should have boundaries. I’m not going to do a “friendly, matey, this that or the other”. You need to be told.’
I could not understand why he was so angry and asked if he was taking lessons from Donald Trump by launching personal attacks on journalists for doing their jobs.
‘The Press does not walk in like that,’ he responded. ‘If you’re going in with the media and a political party, you do not waltz into a place like that.”
Burnham obviously isn’t getting enough sleep, because he also had a tetchy encounter with the Express’s Aaron Newbury. If he’s this allergic to media scrutiny already, we can probably rule out televised lobby briefings when he’s in No10…
The only candidate shortlisted, because why would anyone else have bothered…
At the time of going to pixel, Andy Burnham is the odds-on favourite to win the Makerfield by-election at a best price of 4/7, or an implied 64% probability. Reform have drifted to 2/1, although they haven’t yet unveiled their candidate. Restore Britain are at 11/1 and the Conservatives are a 940/1 afterthought in a seat they have never won…
| Labour (Burnham) | 4/7 |
64% |
| Reform | 2/1 |
33% |
| Restore Britain | 11/1 |
8% |
| Green | 200/1 |
<1% |
| Lib Dem | 500/1 |
<1% |
| Conservatives | 940/1 |
<1% |
There is still a month to go, and the prices are unlikely to be stable…
Britain would lose Margaret Thatcher’s EU rebate and pay at least £5 billion a year more than before Brexit if Labour drags the country back into Brussels, according to the UK’s last European commissioner. The Burnham premium would cost billions…
Sir Julian King warns today that Brussels would not tolerate any “special deal” on re-entry. Which is obvious to everyone on planet Earth other than the people fighting for the keys to Number 10…
He tells the Telegraph:
“The door’s open, but we shouldn’t expect any special deal. That doesn’t mean, in practice, adopting the euro, but it would mean renewed free movement across Europe and a significant budget contribution. Those advocating [rejoining] need to build sustainable public support for what EU membership really involves.”
What it really involves is the return of free movement, a “significant budget contribution” (which is code for ‘multiple billions’), surrendering our waters, and entering a torturous 10-year application process in which Prime Minister Burnham / Streeting / Miliband would have to go cap in hand to Brussels begging for mercy. Vote Leave chief Lord Elliott estimated last month that the full annual membership bill would hit £22 billion, which is three times the current prisons budget. That is a conservative estimate…
Backtrack Burnham has a record. Guido kept the receipts…
More to follow…
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”