Andy Burnham has insisted it’s “an annoyance” to “constantly” answer questions about his totally non-existent Labour leadership ambitions. Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester this afternoon, Burnham ruled out standing in the upcoming Lancashire by-election, and vowed to see out his second term as Mayor of Greater Manchester. “I love what I’m doing”, he earnestly reassures listeners…
“My heart is in this job. I’m focused on it. It kind of has been an annoyance constantly to be asked about that. But I’ve never changed that script. I’ve always said I’d do a full second term and I will. I am very, very likely to stand for a third.”
Poor Andy. It must be really frustrating, especially when he seemingly spent every waking moment of Labour conference trying to make headlines…
Is there anyone Andy Burnham didn’t manage to upset with his Sky News interview this morning? Having already seen Anneliese Dodds publicly distance the Labour frontbench from his comments on renationalisation, now Tory MP Jonathan Gullis has demanded Burnham apologises and retracts his claim that Gullis “demonised” rail workers by calling them “greedy” in an interview over the weekend. Gullis points out that not only did he not use those words… he didn’t do any media this weekend…
In a letter to Burnham sent this afternoon, Gullis explains what really happened:
“This morning you referred to me in interviews on Sky News with Kay Burley and Good Morning Britain, claiming I had been on the media this weekend just gone and that I had said railway workers were being “greedy”. This is completely untrue. Firstly, I did not do any media at the weekend. In fact, I attended the wedding of one of my best friends and then enjoyed the rest of the bank holiday weekend spending quality time with my family. Secondly, I have never used the word “greedy” in any interview regarding strikes on the railways. Had you said I have been very vocally critical of the militant Union barons of the RMT, such as RMT President Alex Gordon, who has pushed Putin’s lies about Ukraine, claiming it is ‘a failed state held to ransom by neo-Nazis’, I would have accepted that. I am therefore asking you to correct the public record immediately and apologise for the entirely false comments you have made about me.”
All in a day’s work. Guido’s approached Burnham’s office for a comment…
UPDATE: A spokesperson for Andy Burnham tells Guido:
“Mr Gullis is good at giving it out but clearly a bit sensitive when the challenge comes back the other way. By reading disputed salary figures out on air and criticising the people taking action he is clearly saying that workers are being too greedy.”
So much for an apology…
UPDATE II: Following Burnham’s spokesperson’s non-apology Gullis confirms to Guido he is now taking legal action. Popcorn at the ready…
Read Gullis’s original letter in full below:
A fairly innocuous tweet from Andy Burnham made a splash on Twitter this morning after a complaint about overpriced public transport in the North. He lamented a simple 20-minute one-stop journey costing constituents an eye-watering £8, and comparing it to London:
Public transport is so expensive in our part of the world.
— Andy Burnham (@AndyBurnhamGM) October 20, 2021
This is the cost of a one-stop, 20-minute journey.
To be levelled up, we need London-level fares.
Accept nothing less. pic.twitter.com/Dug5VOaisC
Labour MP Neil Coyle then, unprovoked, accused the King of the North of making “cheap digs at London”:
A riled Burnham would not hear it and was keen to level up the conversation…
Still not satisfied, Burnham has spent the last hour passively aggressively retweeting his Twitter supporters including one who not so subtly wrote: “I don’t get why some Londoners are upset about this”. Meanwhile red wall voters without transit systems, and just one bus an hour, will no doubt be experiencing broken hearts at the plight of their metropolitan comrades…
