𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Andy Burnham isn’t even an MP yet and already he’s been forced to carry out a humiliating, spineless U-turn. Maybe he has what it takes to be Labour leader after all. He wants to sneakily abolish the Brexit you voted for and take us cravenly back to an EU that frankly doesn’t want us.

But he’s decided to back down on his actual convictions… for the sake of votes. So he will be trying to bury any talk of Brexit in the forthcoming Makerfield election. Now, I’m not saying the Eurovision Song Contest is a sophisticated annual bellwether of the prevailing EU winds. All I’m saying is United Kingdom un point.

Last place. Again. And that with a song which practically begged our European friends to forgive us for Brexit. Indeed it should be the soundtrack to Burnham’s campaign such was its supine acceptance that Europe knows best.

The odd truth about Burnham is that he’s basically a very average workaday politician, affable enough but a man nine tenths civil servant and zero tenths political leader. He has unwisely adopted the teeth-grindingly embarrassing moniker “King of the North”. Thing is Andy, we don’t really do kings up north, and if we have to have one we’ll take Charles any day, thanks.

The King’s patching-up of Keir Starmer’s very damaging split with the US took skill, grace and incredible statecraft. Can you see any member of this Labour Party, particularly that bunch of second-tier wannabes currently foaming at the mouth over the prospect of moving their furniture into No10, having the wit, intelligence or gravitas to pull that off?

No, me neither. So, Andy Burnham, if he were to win Makerfield, and if he were to win a Labour leadership election – neither of which is by any means certain – would at least start the process of taking Britain back into the EU.

Y’know, exactly the opposite of what the country voted for. But that is the Labour DNA. They do not work for the country, they work for themselves. They know better than you, you see. You are too stupid and bigoted to know what’s good for you.

It’s the lies and the contempt for democracy too isn’t it? Beautifully ensnared by rival leadership candidate Wes Streeting (who is at least 100% clear about his contempt for Brexit and Brexit voters) the Burnham camp was this weekend forced to admit he wanted Britain back in Europe.

But he won’t be talking about that in Makerfield. He’s going to disguise his core beliefs from the voters, hoping he can hoodwink them or blindside them. Because there’s an awful lot of Reform voters in Makerfield. So a spokesman for Burnham has told us he won’t be standing “on a national manifesto”. And there’s that contempt again.

As the front page of today’s Daily Express put it, The Voters Are Not Fools. Writing in the Express Nigel Farage the Reform UK leader labelled the Labour leader-in-waiting “Open Borders Burnham” and added: ““Andy Burnham’s position raises serious questions… he continues to advocate re‑joining a European project built around the free movement of 500 million people.”

And he’s right. Burnham hails from that classic lefty cabal of “people who have never had a proper job”. Admittedly after Cambridge he did have a short spell at the prestigious Tank World (you knowwww, the world’s premier bulk-liquid transportation publication), but other than that he got a leg-up into a Westminster job by dint of being pals with Tessa Jowell’s step daughter and the rest is history.

But the real contempt for you, the electorate, is the way this Labour Party are basically twisting the rules of British democracy so they can shoe-horn their mate in to run the country. Clearly because there is no-one among the 403 sitting Labour MPs up to the job.

The current Makerfield MP Josh Simons admittedly had to resign his Cabinet position after spying on journalists, but he seems quite well-liked by the Makerfield electorate. But he is slinging his hook to make way for the King of the North. One can only wonder what sweeteners he may or may not have been promised – but if that’s democracy I’m a banana.

What would be truly hilarious though is if Farage were to play this shower at their own game and quit his Clacton seat to stand in Makerfield.

Now that is a Brexit battle I’d pay good money to see. Until then we will just watch this horrendously incompetent party focus on an internal civil war instead of running the country. Never has Britain needed a General Election more desperately.