Andy Burnham has criticised Reeves this morning for planning to approve at third runway at Heathrow in her Mansion House speech. A second runway at Gatwick and expanded capacity at Luton are also expected to be announced…
Burnham attacked the plans for trapping “knock-on infrastructure investment in London and the south-east” and used curiously Borisian language: “It’s a model for an ever overheating UK economy rather than a more balanced, levelled up economy, which is what we would argue for.” Burnham has long used his mayoralty to set himself apart from Labour’s Westminster leadership…
“I would ask the government to pause on this one to talk to northern MPs, talk to northern mayors, and come up with a plan that if it goes ahead, we can demonstrate that it’s not at the expense of essential investment in northern infrastructure.”
The mayor was quick recently to defy Starmer in calling for a full inquiry into rape gangs. Talking to Times Radio he also came close to criticising Downing Street’s handling of Southport: “Just because people are shouting for information doesn’t mean you can just throw information out in the public domain. But perhaps more of a balance needs to be struck.” Burnham has long eyed the Labour leadership. His opportunity may come sooner than he was expecting at the last election…
Sarah Pochin at Reform Scotland’s manifesto launch event: “I really wanted to come on in a Reform tartan burka, but apparently I wasn’t allowed… One day let’s do one of these events not live-streamed. We’ll do all the naughty stuff…”