Andy Burnham U-turning on everything – except his biggest mistake of all | Personal Finance | Finance
One of the harshest criticisms of current Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is that he is the king of U-turns. By January, Express had already counted 13 flip-flops, and they’ve been coming ever since. No doubt he’ll keep going around in circles until Burnham shows him the door to No. 10. The incumbent may change, but things won’t stop because Burnham has fallen into exactly the same habit. He’s making U-turns left, right and centre, and he’s not even Prime Minister yet.
Burnham’s first U-turn was to run for Prime Minister. Just days after assuring Greater Manchester he would become mayor, he triggered an unnecessary by-election that he hoped would take him to Westminster. Now the policy U-turns are coming so thick and fast that even Sir Keir is taking notes. He’s not even in power yet. Imagine how busy he’ll be if he actually gets there.
Interestingly, many of these U-turns mirror the same U-turns Starmer has made before. For example, regarding trans rights. Burnham was previously forced into an embarrassing reverse ferret after supporting trans women using women’s toilets.
In 2022, Burnham dismissed the protection of single-sex spaces for biological women as a “pretty small minority view.” He backtracked, as did Starmer, now confused about penises and percentages.
Burnham also backtracked on Brexit. He called for Britain to rejoin the EU, then realized it wouldn’t go down well with Brexiteer Makerfield, whom Labor had relied on to get him into Parliament. Bang. Another U-turn.
“Backtrack Burnham,” as the Tories have just dubbed him, also got into trouble by claiming that Britain should stop being “hostage to the bond market.” This created immediate unease over Labour’s borrowing plans and forced it into another humiliating retreat. He is also confused about Rachel Reeves’ fiscal rules and whether she would raise taxes if she came to power.
Burnham even made a U-turn on immigration. All the talk was that he would abandon Home Minister Shabana Mahmood, who had made a good move to resolve this divisive issue. It now apparently supports tighter controls. At least this week.
Unfortunately, she didn’t make a U-turn when photographers spotted her running in shorts that exposed her hips. But he desperately needs to make one more U-turn, and as far as we know, he hasn’t done so yet.
Westminster rumors suggest Burnham plans to ditch Rachel Reeves as chancellor and replace her with Ed Miliband. I pray this isn’t true. Reeves is a car crash, but Miliband will take the madness to a whole other level, just like he did with energy policy. It increased household bills, hit industry and accelerated the deindustrialisation of Britain. Despite the reactions, he continues on his way by legitimizing this with increasingly absurd arguments.
While Miliband insists that more North Sea drilling will not reduce energy bills, he completely ignores the wider economic benefits. Works. Tax revenues. Export earnings. A stronger pound. Better energy security. Lower emissions than importing fuel from halfway around the world.
Now imagine this idea applied to the entire UK economy. It’s too scary to think about. But all the gossip suggests Burnham wants Miliband to manage No 11. So please, Andy, back off this plan too. Otherwise you’ll quickly find yourself falling into the same pit as Starmer.
