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Andy Burnham has slammed Nigel Farage’s “massive mistake” with Reform UK. Last week, former Tory MP Robert Jenrick defected to Reform UK, making him Nigel Farage’s sixth MP in the House of Commons. Romford MP Andrew Rosindell defected from the Tories just a few days later, taking Reform’s haul up to seven. The defection deluge prompted Kemi Badenoch to hold an emergency meeting of the 1922 Committee on Wednesday (January 21), telling Tory MPs: “Where Reform is negative about our country, we will be fuelled by positivity.”  

The Reform UK leader has welcomed several former senior Tories into his ranks in recent months, including ex-Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi, Scottish Conservative life peer Malcolm Offord, and former Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries. He has set May 7 as the cut-off point for admitting current and former MPs into the party.

Now, in an exclusive interview with Express.co.uk, the Mayor of Greater Manchester has shared his concerns about the growing political party and the impact it will have on the upcoming by-elections.

When asked how he feels about Reform growing stronger as a party in recent weeks, he countered: “You say that, though, but are they? I’ve watched them over the last week, and I’ve just thought, ‘You’re making one massive mistake here, welcoming in these washed-up Tory MPs’.

“I mean, these are the sort of people who were the cheerleaders when Margaret Thatcher was destroying this place in the 1980s. They are pitching their wagon to all of these Tories, Reform are welcoming in the worst of the Tory Party, and I don’t think it goes unnoticed in these parts that they’re doing that. So, I think they’re making a major mistake.”

With Farage confident that the number of Tory MPs joining his ranks will only rise over spring, the former MP pointed out one major error in his plan. He went on: “I think the public might find it harder to tell them apart, or that Reform are sort of the extreme version of the Tories. I don’t think this is going to help them.

“I think they have posed as a friend of the North. They’ve posed as a friend of the working-class communities in these parts. But then they’re saying now that they’re going to scrap the Northern Powerhouse rail that the government committed to last week. So, their true colours are coming through.”

Poking fun at the party leader, he chuckled: “Mr Farage was out on his Boxing Day hunt with his yellow trousers this year. I don’t know anyone in Greater Manchester who wears yellow trousers on Boxing Day. Nobody, not one person.”

It comes as speculation grows that Burnham could be returning to Westminster, following suspended Labour MP Andrew Gwynne’s announcement that he is stepping down for medical reasons. This has left Brits speculating that the King of the North could challenge Keir Starmer’s position as Prime Minister.

On February 28, for the first time in its history, the prestigious music awards will move out of London, a change that Burnham has “waited all his life for”. He gushed: “It’s massive for Manchester, I’ve been for years hoping that this day would come.

“I was the Culture Secretary a long time ago, and I said to them, ‘Come on, when are you coming to Manchester?’ I think it’s a reflection of how far the city has come that this actually is happening because we’ve got loads of infrastructure, hotels, everything. It’s a big sign that Manchester is massively right up there now.

“I personally feel that music started the revival of Manchester because I was growing up here in the ‘80s in my teenage years, and in the decades since, it’s been amazing to see the city thrive. But we’re not finished yet by any means.”