Boris Johnson has launched a scathing attack on Andy Burnham after announcing his plans to run for the Labour leadership, branding him a “Mancunian mystery”.
Sitting down with GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope, the ex-Prime Minister declared the country “doesn’t know what he stands for”.
Asked if he had “any advice” for the newly elected Makerfield MP, Mr Johnson told GB News: “Yes, get things done quickly. You have no honeymoon, not that you necessarily deserve one.
“And for heaven’s sake, don’t think that just because you’ve got this fantastic personal mandate from the people of Makerfield or the Labour Party, the people of Britain yet understand what you’re about.
“Because frankly, being a successful metro mayor is a very different job, and he has to tackle the country.”
Highlighting the Labour issues that Mr Burnham will likely inherit if he becomes Prime Minister, the ex-Tory leader said: “He has to lead a country now that has got £3trillion worth of debt, that has got taxes higher than they’ve ever been, and a welfare budget that’s completely out of control.
“And he’s got somehow to explain to the Labour Party who put him in there, that they can’t expect him to take this country further to the left.”
Mr Johnson criticised Mr Burnham and expressed his concern for a lack of “clear and coherent programme” ahead of his imminent transition to becoming Prime Minister.
He said: “What I worry about is I don’t see any real evidence of a clear and coherent programme from him. This country needs a proper adult conversation about the level of public spending and public debt, and we need to start cutting that welfare budget.
“We need to be putting more into defence, but also cutting taxes as well and using Brexit freedoms to cut regulations, and I see no sign of any of that.”
Mr Johnson argued: “He’s a complete Mancunian mystery, we do not know what he stands for. It’s a complete pig in a poke, and I think the public are going to demand some pretty early answers from him now.
“I think that personally, he’ll find it very difficult to continue for long without going for a general election, and if he gets any kind of bounce, he needs his own personal authority, his commission from the people of this country to do the job.
“I worry very much that he’s going to take us in the wrong direction.”
Asked whether he would back a general election, Mr Johnson threw his support behind Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and said “she deserves to win”.
He told GB News: “I hope there will be an election. I hope Kemi Badenoch will win it and we’ll have a change of Government, because I think that Labour are taking us in a diametrically opposite direction from what this country needs.
“I think the answers to the country’s needs are Conservative answers, and I think Kemi is very good at articulating that. She needs to get out there.
“Who’s been hounding Starmer every week at the despatch box? It ain’t been Reform, it’s been Kemi. And ever since he put on that pair of Waheed Alli-funded spectacles, ever since his various suits were sleaze-funded, she’s been on him, and I think she deserves it.”
Pressed on whether Conservatives should team up with Reform UK, Mr Johnson declared that you “never win by trying surgically to enhance your performance”.
He said: “In politics, you never win by trying surgically to enhance your performance with some sort of cosmetic surgery.
“It doesn’t work by trying to have the mammary glands or some well-done bits of other parts, it’s just not going to work.
“Some Frankenstein, Franken-party of the right is not going to work. What you need is a Conservative, one-nation Conservative victory.
“Cutting taxes, cutting regulation and delivering and making sure that we live up to the memory of Brexit.”
