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.”
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”