Burnham’s exchange with ITV News’ political correspondent Harry Horton in Ukraine:
- Horton: “There could be a very easy way to pay for all these things. You could unleash yourself from the constraints of the Labour manifesto and you could have an election, get yourself a new mandate. What about that?”
- Burnham: “I don’t think that’s what people are looking for right now. The country needs to focus on what’s ahead of us. Get the economy going, bring people together. I said on the steps of Downing Street actually that we’ve had too much political turbulence in our country. We’ve got to start focusing on problem solving rather than point scoring. An election just brings a load of point scoring, a load of arguments, a load of division. Actually what I’m going to try to do in this moment as Prime Minister is bring people together, get some hope going around the country… It is better to focus on those things rather than getting trapped into another round of politics.”
- Horton: “But you are the most popular party leader in the country at the moment. Over the summer the Conservatives don’t seem to be making much progress, the greens are falling back, this is a golden opportunity for you, why not take it and call an election?”
- Burnham: “I will tell you why not – because I am focused on the needs of the country and not party-political interest. I am not going to call an election, I said outside Downing Street that I would do politics differently, that I would try to bring people together and focus on problem solving rather than point scoring. I am ruling it out right in front of you. I am going to try my best as we go through the Autumn to bring people together, to get some confidence going. We have had some early signs that there is more confidence in the economy. I want to build that confidence through the budget working with the Chancellor. That is what I think we should be doing in the best interests of Britain.”
There’s always Spring. Remember when Burnham said he would serve his full term as Manchester mayor about fifteen times?
