Burnham played up his Northern credentials when he threw his hat in the ring to be Labour’s Greater Manchester Mayoral candidate:

“It’s hard growing up in the north: if you say you want to be a doctor, lawyer or MP you get the mickey taken out of you.”

Sounding like the seventh Python won Burnham no favours. A series of prominent Northerners in politics and the media took to Twitter to take t’piss out of the shadow home secretary. Dr Who writer Gareth Roberts tweeted “Ee by ‘eck Andrew so-called Burnham wi’ your la-do-da Labour Party I’ll go t’t foot of our stairs” while Barnsley-born Jack Tindale asked if his running mate would be a “kestrel”. Even a local councillor piled in to tell Burnham to do one…