He’s not even Prime Minister yet but already Andy Burnham has shown what a gutless, lily-livered, unaccountable leader he’s going to be.
After his much-trumpeted speech where he promised to “Rewire Britain” and give the country “the circuit breaker” it needs for success, Labour’s new ‘messiah’ was too scared to take questions on what any of that means or to spell out his economic vision for Britain.
Yep, that’s right, the bloke who we’re told is going to save the country has so little faith in his own vision for it that that he’s too terrified to be quizzed on it by journalists who’d have asked the questions voters wanted answers to.
Yes, he forced lots of passion and emotional rhetoric down our throats but there was no detail on anything, no flesh on the bones, no practical policies on how to solve the problems which are engulfing the country.
It was all just emotional hot air. It felt like one of those tub-thumping Labour speeches from 25 years ago when politicians just had to shout out a few fantasy policies at people who were so in thrall to the party that they’d believe them.
But times have changed. We all see now how this party operates and anyone who thinks this barnstorming speech (well, barnstorming for Burnham) was a sign that he’s got what it takes to be a good PM really needs to give their heads a wobble. What it says to the rest of us is that, as usual, Andy Burnham is just a big loud mouth and no trousers.
His big devolution plan seems to be to farm power out to lots of local mayors which would stop him from having to make any tough unpopular decisions. And of course, he couldn’t be blamed for any of it when it went wrong.
But I’m sorry – that’s nowhere close to being a masterplan for to how to govern a country that’s up to its neck in debt and trouble and needs direction from a tough leader.
I’m guessing the real reason the coward Burnham swerved questions after his speech was because the little cabal around him who are pushing him into Number 10 don’t want him exposed to any real scrutiny until he’s there because they know another disastrous question/interview session would expose him as the ill equipped, no substance dullard he really is.
And anyone who saw his calamitous interview a couple of weeks ago with the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire will know what I mean. Derbyshire had thrown a few tame questions at him but they were enough to send him into a muttering, stumbling tailspin.
In one of them she asked him if he’d be following Rachel Reeves fiscal rules and if so, could he explain them to her. The terror in his eyes was plain to see. He clearly had no clue what the rules were and tried to bat her off saying he wouldn’t be drawn into a “test-like” situation.
Why not for God’s sake? If he’s going to be PM its his job to know what the fiscal rules are and how to implement them. And it will be his job to take questions from journalists who represent the British people.
I’m guessing today’s cowardice was all down to the fact that he has this grand plan for devolution – which will never work here – but there is no flesh on the bones, no costings, no real idea of how it’s going to work – and so he doesn’t want to be asked any in depth questions about it. He’s been stymied by Starmer saying he won’t stay until September, so he’s had no time to work out what he’s going to actually do.
In other words –he doesn’t have any plans just a lot of big uncosted ideas which he has no idea how, or if they’ll work.
And why the Hell did he choose Manchester to make this speech which was supposed to be his re-entry into Westminster politics? I reckons it’s because the man whose spent the last eight years as a local mayor feels safer on home turf than he does in the cut throat world of Westminster – which doesn’t bode well.
He knew in Manchester his audience would be a hand-picked crew of slavering fans and Leftie luvvies who’d clap like performing seals at his every utterance. Which they did.
As for all this nonsense about a Number 10 up North. There can be no such thing. This is simply about him trying to get Red Wall votes.
“Give me ten years to fix Britain,” he said.
Please God No. Ten years under this rookie and Britain will be bankrupt. In fact, give it ten months and we’ll be well on our way to Hell in a handcart.
But this refusal to talk to media is HUGE red flag about Burnham because it shows that he has zero intention of being accountable or of being answerable for what he does and says.
If he was confident about his plans he’d talk to us about them in detail. But he isn’t. So, he ran away and hid from scrutiny.
And if he’s scared of defending his plans to journalists, how the Hell is he going to manage in Parliament under the relentless interrogation of Kemi and Farage? Wait until they nail him down about how his plans are going to work and how much they’re going to cost. He’ll be reduced to dust.
Kemi was spot on when she said: “He doesn’t have a plan beyond telling local mayors to go and sort it out. This is not good enough. There is a country to govern.”
And she’s right. Its all very well Burnham banging on about devolution (which has been an absolute disaster in Scotland) but there’s a country to sort out.
There’s a humongous benefits bill to cut, there’s our military to finance. We have out of control immigration, millions out of work. What are his plans for all that?
But no, he had nothing beyond devolution which won’t work because divvying up power and giving it to regions will take years and cost money we don’t have.
More importantly, giving power to the regions takes power away from central government and its and ability to get things done. And what happens when these regions cock it up and go bust (as we seen with so many local authorities) who’s going to bail them out? Westminster that’s who. So, what’s the bloody point?
The only people who’d have been impressed by Burnham’s speech are the acolytes and those party faithfuls pushing him into No.10.
To the rest of us it was just the same old Labour clown – but with a different face.
