𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

One of the most cutting criticisms of existing PM Sir Keir Starmer is that he’s king of the U-turns. By January, the Express had already counted 13 flip-flops and they’ve kept coming ever since. No doubt he’ll keep going round in circles until Burnham shows him the door to No 10. The incumbent may change, but the flip-flops won’t stop because Burnham has picked up exactly the same habit. He’s been U-turning left, right and centre, and he isn’t even PM yet.

Burnham’s first U-turn was running for PM in the first place. Within days of assuring Greater Manchester he was committed to being its mayor, he triggered a needless by-election that he hopes will take him to Westminster instead. Now the policy U-turns are coming thick and fast, and remember, he isn’t even in power yet. Just imagine how busy he’ll be when he gets there.

Curiously, many of these U-turns mirror the same ones Starmer has already performed. On trans rights, for example. Burnham was forced into an embarrassing reverse ferret after previously backing transgender women using female toilets.

Back in 2022, Burnham dismissed protecting single-sex spaces for biological women as “quite a small minority view”. He’s now backtracked, just like Starmer, who famously claimed women could have a penis.

Burnham has also reversed on Brexit. He previously said he wanted Britain to rejoin the EU, then quickly realised that wouldn’t play too well in Makerfield, the constituency Labour is relying on to get him into Parliament. Bang. Another U-turn.

“Backtrack Burnham”, as the Tories have dubbed him, also got himself into trouble by claiming Britain should stop being “in hock to the bond market”. That immediately sparked jitters over Labour borrowing plans and forced him into another rapid retreat.

He’s also twisted himself in knots over Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules and whether he would or wouldn’t raise taxes if he takes power.

Burnham has even U-turned on immigration. All the talk was that he would ditch home secretary Shabana Mahmood, who’s made a decent fist of tackling this divisive issue. Now apparently he backs her. At least this week.

Sadly, he didn’t make a U-turn when photographers spotted him jogging in those thigh-revealing shorts. But there’s another U-turn he desperately needs to make, and as far as we know, hasn’t. Yet.

Westminster rumours suggest Burnham plans to dump Rachel Reeves as chancellor, which is fair enough, and replace her with Ed Miliband. Reeves has made a complete car crash of the economy, but Miliband would take the madness to another level entirely, just as he’s already done with energy policy.

He’s done enough damage as energy secretary, driving up household bills, hammering industry and accelerating Britain’s deindustrialisation. Despite the backlash, he keeps ploughing on while justifying it with increasingly absurd arguments.

Miliband insists more North Sea drilling wouldn’t cut energy bills, while completely ignoring the wider economic benefits. Jobs. Tax revenues. Export earnings. A stronger pound. Better energy security. Lower emissions than importing fuel halfway around the world.

Now imagine that thinking applied across the entire UK economy. Yet all the chatter suggests Burnham wants Miliband running Number 11. So please, Andy, live up to the nickname and backtrack on this plan too. Otherwise you will quickly find yourself spinning down the same drain as Starmer.