𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Andy Burnham has only been Prime Minister for three months. Yet he has already developed an unwelcome habit – his apparent reluctance to face scrutiny from journalists.

He managed to dodge it during his first six weeks in the job, because it rather conveniently coincided with the summer parliamentary recess. It is a pattern that has repeated itself on several occasions since then. Burnham was at it again in Berlin this week during his first bilateral diplomatic visit since entering Downing Street.

The Prime Minister met his German counterpart, Friedrich Merz, face-to-face for the first time to ratify the bilateral Kensington Treaty – signed by the chancellor and Burnham’s predecessor Keir Starmer last year.

Unusually for visits between close allies, there was no press conference. This was supposedly at No 10’s insistence, after the Prime Minister wanted to avoid any difficult questions.

Politico Berlin likened the “surprising” and “controversial” decision to “something associated with Chinese visits”. Ouch!

So does Comrade Burnham have an aversion to the media? Well, yes and no.

I was one of the journalists who spoke with the Prime Minister on the plane during his recent trip to the United Nations in New York.

He was generous with his time – about 35 minutes – and gave clear answers to most of the questions. He also took questions when meeting Donald Trump. But this isn’t always the case.

In fact, I was one of those to miss out when Burnham was forced to cut short a “media huddle” in the Downing Street garden on the day he became Prime Minister. That had more to do with speaking with world leaders than anything else.

Then there was the decision from No 10 not to take a full pack of journalists to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in St John’s, Antigua and Barbuda next month, where King Charles will also be attending.

This is the first time I can ever remember this happening. Instead, he will take a “pool” – a few selected reporters who report on behalf of everyone else.

The same is expected to happen when Burnham attends the COP climate summit in Turkey in November. Rather than facing unscripted, live questioning from correspondents, Burnham’s team has shifted focus to a curated, digital-first communications approach.

He has opted to interact directly with the public through structured online forums, including hosting an “Ask Me Anything” on the r/UKPolitics Subreddit and answering pre-selected questions on Instagram.

Aside from necessary set-piece interviews, such as his post-handover sit-down on BBC News via Laura Kuenssberg, his team relies heavily on in-house production crews to create relaxed, direct-to-taxpayer mini-films.

Opposition leaders like Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage, along with several senior broadcasters, have accused Burnham of “dodging scrutiny”. The fact is that Express readers deserve better.