‘King of the North’ Andy Burnham is a London landlord
Westminster hopeful Andy Burnham has been branded a hypocrite after it was revealed he was renting a flat in London and was partly funded by his MP’s expenses.
Labour’s Makerfield by-election candidate bought the two-bedroom Kennington property in 2005 and it has since doubled in value to £480,000.
Mr Burnham, who often bemoaned young people’s inability to get on the housing ladder, used taxpayers’ cash to pay mortgage interest on the property, using MP spending; this allowance was scrapped following the 2009 spending crisis.
He was branded a hypocrite by conservatives. Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake told The Sun on Sunday: ‘It seems the so-called King of the North has a pretty comfortable foothold south of the river.
It was purchased at expense, doubled in value, rented out for profit – despite cries of injustice against the landlord class to which it belonged. ‘There’s a certain whiff of hypocrisy.’
In 2015, it was revealed that the then shadow health secretary was renting out the former council flat and charging taxpayers nearly £17,000 a year to rent a different flat nearby.
Despite being compliant, Mr Burnham was accused of showing ‘lack of judgment’. His spokesman declined to comment.
At the weekend, Mr Burnham was dragged into a fresh row over his Brexit beliefs after it was revealed the Government was pushing for Britain to be readmitted to a new version of the EU single market.
Westminster hopeful Andy Burnham has been branded a hypocrite after it was revealed he was renting a London flat partly funded by the MP’s expenses
Labour’s Makerfield by-election candidate bought the two-bedroom Kennington property in 2005 and it has since doubled in value to £480,000.
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The Remain mayor of Manchester, who is trying to win a by-election in pro-Brexit Makerfield, has been asked to say whether he would maintain his stance if he replaces Sir Keir Starmer as Labor leader and prime minister.
Mr Burnham last week tried to sidestep the Brexit issue by saying there was a ‘long-term’ case for rejoining the EU but that he would not be able to do so ‘in this by-election’.
But on Saturday night the Conservative Party’s trade spokesman Andrew Griffith urged him to be frank about what he would propose to Brussels. Mr Griffith said: ‘Whether Burnham likes it or not, Brexit is the elephant in the room in this by-election.
‘He needs to get rid of the fences on a deep issue such as the parliament he wants to be elected to decide our own laws instead of leaving them to Brussels. ‘No so-called ‘straight talkers’ will be able to gloss over this for the next four weeks.’
The row erupted after it emerged that Michael Ellam, Britain’s chief negotiator in ‘restart’ talks with the EU, had proposed bringing Britain into line with EU regulations to allow free trade of goods with the bloc.
The proposed move in the next phase of the Government’s Brexit reset comes after the Prime Minister promised last week that ‘This Labor Government will be defined by rebuilding our relationship with Europe, putting Britain at the heart of Europe’.
Brussels is understood to have responded by proposing that Britain join the customs union or allow freedom of movement to be restored; both of these were expressly rejected in Labour’s 2024 General Election manifesto.
