Politics
‘Starmer is economically illiterate’ – spiked
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Politics
What Did Emma Willis Host Before Strictly Come Dancing? 7 Forgotten Shows
Emma Willis has now been a staple on British TV for more than 20 years.
The presenter is best known for hosting shows like Big Brother, The Voice and The Circle, and was recently introduced to a more international audience when she and her husband Matt Willis began presenting Netflix’s British iteration of the dating series Love Is Blind.
If rumours are to be believed, she’s since landed the biggest gig of her career, as she’s set to take over as the new host of Strictly Come Dancing, taking over from Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman.
But while you’ve probably watched Emma on some of the UK’s biggest reality shows over the years, there are plenty of other presenting gigs throughout her extensive resume you might have completely forgotten about.
Here are the ones we dug through the archives to find…
The Hot Desk (2008)
Emma got her start on music TV in the early 2000s, presenting segments for MTV as well as the UK version of the iconic TRL.
In 2008, Emma joined another British music show called The Hot Desk, whose other hosts included the likes of All Saints’ Nicole Appleton and Melanie Blatt, Laura Whitmore, Sarah Jane Crawford and Alice Levine.
At the end of each interview, the host would ask their celebrity guest to sign the “Hot Desk” with a pen (isn’t that just oh-so 2010s?).
One of Emma’s biggest interviews from that era was with a young and bright-eyed One Direction on The Hot Desk in 2011, a year after they came third on The X Factor.
Live From Studio Five (2010)
In the peak of 2000s gossip mags and celebrity interview panels, there were plenty of shows out there like Live From Studio Five.
Emma joined a line-up of co-presenters – including Brian Dowling and Ian Wright – who would conduct interviews and discuss topical issues, celebrity gossip and big news stories.
However it didn’t do too well with ratings, and ultimately came off the air after around a year and a half.
Girlfri3nds (2012)
Even as far back as 2012, Emma was clearly discovering that she had a bit of a knack when it came to reality TV.

She presented two seasons of this British show about single women looking for love, which saw three pals searching for their ideal guy out of 100 auditioning men.
Prize Island (2013)
Emma co-presented this sunny series alongside Alexander Armstrong back in 2013.
Prize Island placed four pairs on an Island (obv) off the coast of Mozambique, with each team participating in rounds of games to uncover prizes, ranging from a TV to a luxury holiday.
At the time, there were reports that it might not air at all, after it looked set to rival (ironically) The Voice. The show ultimately only last six episodes across one season.
Prized Apart (2015)
Another oft-overlooked game show from Emma’s TV past was the ambitious Prized Apart.
Prized Apart saw two groups of adventurous hopefuls trying out assorted physical tasks in Morocco (overseen by Emma’s former The Voice co-host Reggie Yates), putting their teamwork to the test in the hope of landing a hefty cash prize of £100K.
After facing criticism due to its convoluted gameplay (not to mention its carbon footprint, as contestants were repeatedly flown backwards and forwards depending on how they’d performed in tasks) it was axed after one season.
The Brit Awards (2017)
Do you remember that time Emma hosted a whole Brit Awards? Honestly, we’d forgotten too.
Back in 2017 she took to the stage for the UK’s biggest night in music alongside co-host Dermot O’Leary.
Dermot and Emma were brought in as somewhat last-minute replacements when the night’s original host, Michael Bublé, was forced to back out due to his son’s illness.
That year’s Brits saw One Direction, Little Mix, The 1975 and more take home awards.
Emma Willis: Delivering Babies (2019)
This one marked a huge change for the presenter as she swapped reality TV and game shows for a hospital maternity unit.
Across the course of four seasons, she worked on a labour ward working NHS hours while training to be a maternity care assistant.
Whether she was making beds, cleaning floors or offering support during births, it made for pretty emotional viewing.
Strictly Come Dancing returns to our screens in the autumn.
Politics
Which Ministers Have Resigned Amid Calls For Starmer To Quit?
A growing list of ministers have resigned from government and urged Keir Starmer to quit as discontent towards the prime minister grows.
Labour is in turmoil after voters gave the party a beating at the elections in England, Wales and Scotland last week.
More than 80 MPs have publicly called for the prime minister to resign as a result – along with multiple ministers.
None of his rivals have publicly challenged Starmer yet and 20% of the Parliamentary Labour Party (81 MPs) need to rally behind one replacement candidate to formally trigger a leadership contest.
However, ministerial resignations make it much harder for the PM to run a government as it undermines his authority.
Cabinet ministers have reportedly been urging the PM to resign behind the scenes, too.
Even so, Starmer has dug in so far and has insisted he is getting on with the job of governing.
Here’s a breakdown of all the ministerial resignations so far…
1. Miatta Fahnbulleh
The junior minister for devolution, faith and communities, Fahnbulleh was the first minister out the block on Tuesday.
She told Starmer: “The public does not believe that you can lead this change – and nor do I.”
In a letter to the prime minister shared on social media, she said: “We have not acted with the vision, pace and ambition that our mandate for change demands of us. Nor have we governed as Labour Party clear about our values and strong in our convictions.”
She added: “Therefore I urge you to do the right thing for the country and the Party and set a timetable for an orderly transition so that a new team can deliver the change we promised the country.”
According to the BBC, she has already backed Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to take over No.10 – even though he needs to win a seat in parliament first.
2. Jess Phillips
Phillips quit as safeguarding minister with a brutal letter of resignation to Starmer.
An ally to Wes Streeting, the health secretary widely expected to challenge Starmer, she wrote: “I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things however I have seen first-hand how that is not enough.
“The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed.”
She continued: “Labour governments come around rarely is the constant refrain at the moment. It’s true they are precious.
“Every Labour government in my and my family’s lifetime has forged progress that changed our country and the world for the better. I know you care deeply, but deeds, not words are what matter.
“I’m not sure we are grasping this rare opportunity with the gusto that’s needed and I cannot keep waiting around for a crisis to push for faster progress.”
She added: “Politics is as much about feelings as policy, especially at the moment.
“I want a Labour government to work and I will strive as I always have for its success and popularity, but I’m not seeing the change I think I, and the country expect, and so cannot continue to serve as a minister under the current leadership.”
3. Alex Davies-Jones
The minister for victims and violence against women and girls handed in her resignation letter on Tuesday afternoon.
Davies-Jones said the scale of losses in the Senedd and across the UK have been “catastrophic”.
“The country has spoken and we must listen,” she said. “We waited fourteen years to get into power and change the lives of those we represent.
“The time now is for bold, radical action. I know you to be a good and honest man. But in my heart are my constituents, the victims I have had the honour of working with every day, including the Hillsborough victims and their families, and all those who demand better of us.
“I implore you to act in the country’s interest and set out a timetable for your departure.”
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Politics
Politics Home Article | Jess Phillips Resigns As Home Office Minister

(Alamy)
2 min read
Jess Phillips has resigned as a minister, claiming she has “given up” believing the prime minister was doing enough to clamp down on violence against women and girls.
Phillips, the safeguarding minister, wrote that she believed Starmer was a “decent man” but no longer had confidence in him.
She is the most senior minister to date to resign from the government so far. The former minister is also a close ally of Wes Streeting, who is expected to run for the Labour leadership if Starmer steps down and a contest takes place.
Phillips’s resignation plunges the prime minister into further chaos after 86 MPs have called for him to resign and set out a timetable for his departure.
The letter, first published by SkyNews, claimed the prime minister had no “desire to have an argument”, which left opportunities for progress on clamping down on violence against women and girls “stalled and delayed.”
It read: “I think you are a good man fundamentally, who cares about the right things. However I have seen first-hand how that is not enough. The desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed.
“Over a year ago I presented solutions, long worked on by brilliant civil servants that would end the ability for children in the UK to take naked images of themselves. 91 per cent of online child sex abuse is self-generated by children groomed, tricked and exploited into abuse.
“The technology exists to stop children being able to take naked images of themselves.
“We could make this possible on every phone and device in the country. We could stop this abuse. It has taken me a year to get you to agree to even threaten to legislate in this space. Not legislate, just threaten. This is the definition of incremental change. Nothing bold about it.”
Phillips added: The announcement was meant to be in March, I’m still on a promise this will happen in June, I’ve given up believing it. How many children were left without a safety net in the time we dully dallied and worried about tech bosses?
“This is just one example.”
Phillips said she wanted a Labour government to work but she could not see the change the country expected and could not serve as a minister under the present leadership.
Politics
WATCH: Netanyahu begs then tries to con China into ending support for Iran
Wanted Israeli war criminal, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been given yet another soft-soap interview by Zionist-run CBS.
In it, Netanyahu railed about the US public’s supposed hate for Israel but then became ‘panicked’, first begging and then tried to con Israel into ending its support for Iran.
China has supplied Iran with high-grade satellite intel on the positions of US and Israeli aggressors. It has reportedly agreed the sale of new, modern warplanes, is buying Iranian oil and has moved its ships into position to impede illegal US operations.
And that support is proving highly effective. Iran is reported to have damaged and forced down two more of the US and Israel’s advanced F-35 strike aircraft, and three US warships. Hence, presumably, Netanyahu’s desperation.
And desperate it was.
Netanyahu and his feeble display
The genocider tried to claim that China’s access to energy resources would be more secure with Iran defeated and the US/Israel in charge of the region. But it’s an open secret, admitted even by alleged western proxies, that China, and strangling its supply of resources, is the ultimate target of the US-Israel war of aggression on Iran.
It was a feeble display from the usually arrogant criminal:
Massive panic in Tel Aviv. Major Garrett confirms China is actively providing highly advanced military support to Iran.
Benjamin Netanyahu is visibly terrified, desperately begging Beijing to stop arming Tehran.
Zionist regime realizes their regional dominance is collapsing. pic.twitter.com/SXDqVUCsYv
— Furkan Gözükara (@FurkanGozukara) May 10, 2026
Featured image via CBS News
By Skwawkbox
Politics
Politics Home | Andy Burnham Meets MPs In London As Manchester Mayor Sets Sights On Number 10

Manchester mayor and Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham is meeting with MPs in London to plan a route to Number 10. (Alamy)
1 min read
Exclusive: Manchester mayor and Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham will meet Labour MPs in London today ahead of plans to announce a potential seat that will give him a route to Number 10.
PoliticsHome understands Burnham, who was sighted in London on Tuesday, is meeting with MPs to get out ahead of Health Secretary and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting – as well as ensuring there is a timetable that allows Burnham to stand.
It comes as pressure grows on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to resign following a disastrous set of local election results which saw the party lose around 1,500 councillors and lose control of the Welsh Senedd for the first time.
Almost 100 Labour MPs have now called for the Prime Minister’s departure, with Streeting and Burnham among Labour MPs favoured candidates to replace Starmer.
However Burnham, who currently serves as Manchester’s mayor and was blocked from standing from an MP several months ago, is not a sitting MP – making his route to Number 10 more drawn out.
PoliticsHome understands Burnham’s camp is set to make an announcement later today on a potential seat for the mayor to stand in, paving a route for him to Number 10.
Additional reporting by Harriet Symonds.
Politics
Labour Leadership Contenders To Replace Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer may have vowed to fight on this morning – but the smart money is still on him having to leave 10 Downing Street sooner rather than later.
The prime minister told his cabinet to get on with running the country as he called on his leadership rivals to put up or shut up.
Starmer loyalists Peter Kyle, Pat McFadden, Liz Kendall and Steve Reed than took the highly unusual step of speaking to the media in support of the PM after the cabinet meeting ended.
Nevertheless, the number of Labour MPs calling on the prime minister to quit in the wake of last week’s local election drubbing now stands at over 80, while junior minister Miatta Fahnbulleh has also resigned.
Under Labour Party rules, a challenger to the party leader must get the support of one-fifth of its MPs to trigger a contest, meaning they would currently need the backing of 81 of their colleagues.
Here, HuffPost UK looks at the likely runners and riders in the race to replace the PM.
Andy Burnham
Burnham was an MP until 2017, and during his 16 years in parliament served as a junior minister under Tony Blair and in Gordon Brown’s cabinet. He also tries and failed on two occasions to be elected Labour leader.
In the nine years since he quit Westminster, he has been the mayor of Greater Manchester, during which time his stock has continued to rise.
He is undoubtedly the most popular Labour politician in the country, which is confirmed by the fact he was re-elected in 2021 and 2024.
However, he cannot challenge the Labour leadership until he is an MP again.
He tried to come back earlier this year but was blocked by Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) from standing as the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, which was won by the Green Party.
Burnham needs to find a Labour MP in a safe seat, most likely in the north-west, who will agree to trigger a by-election by standing down, and then persuade the NEC to let him run this time.
And despite his popularity, it’s by no means certain that he would even be re-elected, given Labour’s current standing in the opinion polls.
Bookies’ odds of being next leader: 11/5

Wes Streeting
It is no secret that the Streeting covets Starmer’s job, but he does not want to be the one who wields the dagger that brings him down.
The hugely ambitious health secretary, who became an MP on the same day as Starmer in 2015, is Labour’s best communicator, something which has won him an army of admirers in the party.
However, his Blairite credentials have made him something of a hate figure on the left of the party, while Starmer loyalists have accused him of continually working to undermine the PM.
If he is to become leader, he needs to strike before Burnham returns to parliament, as he is unlikely to defeat him in a contest which would ultimately be decided by Labour members.
One MP told HuffPost UK: “If he doesn’t go this time, he’s done as a political force.”

Angela Rayner
`The former deputy prime minister was forced to resign from the cabinet last year for failing to pay the correct amount of stamp duty when she bought a flat in Brighton.
His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs is still conducting its own investigation into the scandal, and most observers believe she cannot mount a leadership challenge until that is resolved.
She has been far more visible recently, however, and cannot be ruled out at this stage – especially if a contest takes place before Burnham returns and the Labour left are in need of a candidate to take on Streeting.

Ed Miliband
The Labour leader between 2010 and 2015, Miliband led the party to a shattering general election defeat to David Cameron’s Tories that year and was forced to resign.
After five years in the political wilderness, during which time he established a cult following online, he returned to the Labour frontbench when Starmer became leader in 2020.
Seen as a Net Zero zealot, he is bitterly opposed to issuing any new licences for oil and gas exploration in the North Sea. Starmer did try to move from the energy brief in a reshuffle last September, but Miliband refused to go and kept his job.
He is one of five cabinet ministers who have privately told Starmer to consider his position, and like Rayner could throw his hat into the ring as the soft-left candidate in any leadership contest.

Yvette Cooper
Like Burnham, she also ran for the Labour leadership in 2015, but came in a distant third place as Jeremy Corbyn swept to victory.
Another to have served in the Blair and Brown governments, she is currently foreign secretary and had been seen as a Miliband loyalist.
However, she notably did not give the PM her support in the wake of last week’s disastrous local elections, and Labour insiders say she has been on leadership manoeuvres in recent months. Could be persuaded to challenge Streeting.

Shabana Mahmood
The hardline home secretary if firmly on the Labour right, and has angered many on the party with her strict immigration policies.
Known as a straight-talker and good communicator, but her chances of being elected leader by the party’s more left-of-centre membership are slim.
She has also told Starmer that his time in No.10 is up.

John Healey
The defence secretary also told Starmer that his time was up, but has since urged his colleagues not to bring him down.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Healey said: “More instability is not in Britain’s interest. Our full focus now must be on dealing with immediate economic & security challenges.”
Another on the soft-left of the party, he is seen as a leadership dark horse, but could be persuaded to run as a unity candidate who could help heal the party after months of bitter infighting.

Other names in the frame
MPs who could also be tempted to challenge for the leadership, if a contest is triggered, include defence minister Al Carns, Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell, chief secretary to the prime minister Darren Jones and education secretary Bridget Phillipson.
Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Politics
Sydney Sweeney Praises ‘Cool’ Euphoria Season 3 ‘Cassie-Zilla’ Scene
As critics remain split down the middle about Sydney Sweeney’s Euphoria character’s season three journey, the actor who plays her has heaped praise on one scene showcased in the drama’s latest episode.
In Monday’s instalment, viewers saw Cassie continuing on her ascent to fame, culminating in a scene in which Sydney was seen destroying a miniature city in the style of Godzilla or Attack Of The 50 Foot Woman.
“The Cassie-zilla sequence was probably the coolest thing I’ve ever done,” the Emmy winner enthused in a behind-the-scenes video.

As Euphoria creator Sam Levinson opened up about how it took around a year to accurately recreate Los Angeles in miniature form, Sydney added: “The details were unbelievable. There were trees and cars and the buildings were my size.”
She added: “I think, for Cassie, she knows what she’s chasing and what she’s going to sacrifice to give herself over to Hollywood.”
After a time-jump since season two, Euphoria fans were reintroduced to Cassie earlier this year at a very different stage of her life, having turned to OnlyFans modelling to pay for her wedding to Jacob Elordi’s Nate.
Over the course of the season so far, Cassie’s OnlyFans shoots have become increasingly more extreme, which has been met with alarm from some critics, who have branded them “degrading”, “horrible” and comparable to a “humiliation ritual” for the former White Lotus star.
Sydney herself has long defended Euphoria’s on-screen nudity and sex scenes, calling out the “double standard” around the way male and female actors who have appeared naked on screen are treated.
“I don’t think as many people took me seriously in Euphoria because I took my shirt off,” she told Cosmopolitan in 2022. “There’s such a double standard. I really hope I can have a little part in changing that.”
During another interview with The Independent, she noted: “When a guy has a sex scene or shows his body, he still wins awards and gets praise. But the moment a girl does it, it’s completely different.”
“I’ve never felt like Sam has pushed it on me or was trying to get a nude scene into an HBO show,” she also insisted. “When I didn’t want to do it, he didn’t make me.”
Euphoria continues on Mondays on Sky, Now and HBO Max in the UK.
Politics
How Labour lost London – spiked
While the embattled UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has vowed to stay on in post, there is no doubt that much of the capital has turned its back on him and the Labour Party he leads.
The elections across London last week ushered in a new era for the capital. Labour’s traditional electoral dominance in the city has been replaced by a fragmented political landscape – six parties control at least one London borough for the first time in the capital’s history. Labour’s loss of a remarkable 459 councillors in London wasn’t a bloody nose as much as it was a bloodbath. But who were the main beneficiaries of this spectacular anti-Labour revolt in the capital?
There is no doubt that in multicultural and cosmopolitan London, the Green Party is on the march. Lewisham is now the Green capital of urban England, with the party taking control of the council in spectacular fashion by gaining 40 councillors. In addition, the Green Party’s Liam Shrivastava won the mayoral election in the borough, finishing 5,000 votes ahead of Labour rival Amanda De Ryk. For the first time, Lewisham has a non-Labour mayor.
Labour’s once-loyal municipalities fell like dominoes. It also lost control of Lambeth, losing 32 councillors (with the Greens gaining 27 in the process), with no party now having an overall majority. It was a similar story in Southwark. Following the last general election, south London emerged as Labour’s modern British heartland – the Greens, however, clearly had other ideas.
The Green Party also won control of other London boroughs, such as Hackney, where it matched its performance in Lewisham by gaining 38 councillors. It also won the mayoralty in Hackney, with Green Party candidate Zoë Garbett defeating her Labour challenger, Caroline Woodley, by nearly 9,000 votes. The Greens wrestled control of Waltham Forest from Labour, gaining 31 councillors (with Labour losing 32).
There was also a Green surge in Haringey, with Labour losing control of the council as a result. Labour could once rely on urban inner-city London areas with relatively high black populations – but in a modern era where traditional loyalties are fraying, this is no longer the case.
Speaking of the fraying of traditional loyalties, like many other parts of the country, a significant portion of London’s Muslim voters have clearly decided to reject Labour. In Newham, Labour lost control of the council and 38 councillors in the process, while the Islamopopulist Newham Independents gained 24, and the Greens 14. Muslim independent candidates had a field day in wards such as Boleyn, East Ham and Little Ilford. Labour’s Forhad Hussain only won the mayoral election in Newham because the Newham Independents and Green Party essentially split the anti-Labour vote.
In neighbouring Tower Hamlets, which has the highest concentration of Muslims by local authority in the whole of England, Aspire strengthened its grip on the council while Labour lost 14 councillors. The well-known Lutfur Rahman, who founded Aspire, won 16,000 more votes than Labour’s Sirajul Islam, who finished a very distant second. In east London, there was quite the Islamopopulist surge.
One of the major takeaways from the London elections is the fact that Labour can no longer depend on old-fashioned modes of political engagement, and use traditional faith-based authority to secure minority votes. The collapse of patronage networks means Labour is being left behind by more dynamic rivals who are better able to mobilise and organise on the ground.
In some parts of the capital, Labour is being pushed to the margins of local civic life. If the Green Party and independent Islamopopulists decide to join forces, it could get even worse for Labour in London – and beyond.
Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance: What the Left Gets Wrong about Ethnic Minorities, which is available to order on Amazon.
Politics
Majid Freeman walks free but Starmer regime will reprosecute in 2027
Anti-genocide activist Majid Freeman walked free from court on Monday after jurors decided they could not reach a verdict on terrorism charges.
The Starmer government had prosecuted Freeman for expressing his support for Palestine’s right of resistance to Israeli oppression and genocide.
Supporters say the jury saw through the transparently political nature of the charges.
Majid Freeman welcomes a retrial
On leaving the court, Freeman said:
I welcome the opportunity of a retrial, because it means the evidence of what Israel has done to Gaza, the brutality, the systematic destruction of an entire people, will once again be placed before a jury of the British public. Let them see it again. Let the world be reminded again.
Stacked retrials
Starmer has been waging a ‘lawfare’ war on those who speak up for the rights of Palestinians and condemn Israel’s genocide and war crimes.
However, as in the case of the Filton 24, the regime’s determination to protect Israel is not accepting the outcome of the jury trials it wants to abolish.
The Crown Prosecution Service has obtained a retrial from the court and will put Freeman in the dock again in September 2027.
The court stacked the retrial of six Filton activists, who had already been in prison for a year and a half, banning lawyers and protesters from reminding the jury of their legal right to acquit.
Featured image via the Canary
By Skwawkbox
Politics
Andy Burnham is just Starmer in northern drag
Are there two other words that better capture just how lost the Labour Party is than ‘Andy Burnham’?
Yes, that Andy Burnham – the long-lashed, Blair-era frontbencher who crashed and burned in two successive Labour leadership contests (in 2010 and 2015), before decamping from parliament to become mayor of Greater Manchester in 2017. At the time, he described life in Westminster as ‘poisonous’ and a ‘living nightmare’.
As incredible as it may seem, a party that once roundly rejected Burnham as its leader is now touting him as Britain’s next prime minister. Inside the Labour Party and among its media sympathisers, this hitherto unremarkable career politician is being presented as the answer to their party’s and the nation’s woes. It doesn’t even matter that he is not actually an MP at the moment. With the Parliamentary Labour Party finally set to evict Keir Starmer from his Downing Street squat, Burnham remains the clear favourite to replace him. As one Labour MP told the Guardian last month, ‘It’s Andy or bust – nothing else works’.
The ambitious Burnham clearly agrees. While he spent much of last autumn publicly flirting with the possibility of launching a leadership challenge – something Starmer himself tried to prevent when he and his supporters on Labour’s National Executive Committee effectively blocked Burnham from standing in February’s Gorton and Denton by-election.
That seems to have only stalled rather than floored Burnham. According to reports, he has been quietly preparing some sort of manifesto, and has identified several possible seats in Greater Manchester and Merseyside where a possible by-election could allow him a route back to parliament.
The Labourite calls for the so-called King of the North to head south have only intensified since Labour’s disastrous showing in Thursday’s local elections. Indeed, just hours after Starmer delivered his AI-generated ‘reset’ speech on Monday, former deputy PM Angela Rayner was busy backing Burnham, telling the Communications Workers Union that her north-west comrade should be allowed to stand as an MP.
It’s desperate stuff. Burnham may well be more likeable than his rivals for Starmer’s crown, from the smarmy, Mandelson-lite charms of Wes Streeting to the achingly self-righteous gobster Rayner herself. But what, beyond the vibes, does Burnham offer?
This is not a fresh-face, fresh-ideas candidate. The 56-year-old, Aintree-born Burnham is very much a product of the New Labour years. Having started working as a researcher for the Labour Party not long after graduating from Cambridge, he became MP for Leigh in 2001, aged just 31. He then rose from a junior health minister in 2005, via the Treasury, to become secretary of state for culture, media and sport in 2008. While he now poses to some extent as a political outsider, ostentatiously playing on his northern roots, he was the very embodiment of the professional political class – a character forged in the lifeless, technocratic New Labour machine. He was managerialist in ethos, gently ‘progressive’ in posture and bled a centrist pink.
He put his name forward for the Labour leadership in 2010, but scored a meagre eight per cent of the vote in the first round and was promptly eliminated in the second. He tried again in 2015, but amid criticism from the unions for his New Labour-ish trappings, he was easily outflanked by the then the insurgent middle-class left and its poster-OAP, Jeremy Corbyn.
That was Burnham then. And there’s little that’s different about Burnham now. Yes, he was re-elected as Greater Manchester mayor with a healthy 63 per cent of the vote in 2024. Polls suggest his personal approval ratings are higher than Labour’s other contenders. But what about the substance?
As mayor, he has, to his credit, taken parts of Manchester’s bus network back under local control, keeping ticket prices low, and has made a decent fist of tackling homelessness. But there’s not much more to Burnham. Politically, he is associated with a left-of-centre, Corbyn-lite Labour faction called, tellingly enough, Mainstream, which seems to be advocating little more than tax-and-spend wealth redistribution. He’s woke-adjacent when it suits, and wouldn’t resist the culture-warring tendencies of the political and cultural establishment. There is nothing to indicate that this soft-technocrat, shot through with the prejudices and worldview of a political class now in its twilight years, is capable of rising to the profound challenges we as a nation and a society face today.
The productivity crisis that has crippled the economy since the 2008 financial crash is deepening. Over 20 per cent (or 9.12million) of people aged 16 to 64 are economically inactive. Wages and living standards continue to fall. A well-founded sense of decline, hopelessness and real peril now haunts the lives of millions of people.
Meanwhile, the public realm continues to degrade. Infrastructure, be it energy or transport, is dilapidated and expensive. Housing is in painfully short supply. Deeper still, the social contract is being torn apart by high levels of immigration, multicultural ideology, and a British state that reveals its incapacity on a daily basis.
So what are Burnham’s answers? A slow-motion effort to rejoin the EU, some sort of wealth tax, a vague plan to re-nationalise some public utilities and to expand the welfare state. And of course, a staunch commitment to Net Zero. This, in practice, is no different to what we’ve got in power at the moment. A technocratic state, happy to immiserate many in the name of climate change, and willing to decommission vast swathes of the working class under the guise of welfare. All the while, Britain will cleave ever closer to the dysfunctional, anti-democratic EU in a marriage of unhappy, unblissful decline.
This is Starmer’s government in northern drag, the same hopeless managerialist band, but with a more genial frontman. His soft ‘progressive’ poses and his welfarist gestures may well warm the cockles of Labour’s public-sector and middle-class support base, keen as they are to reassure themselves that they’re the Good People. It may even entice back some of the affluent progressives currently expressing their ‘virtue’ by voting Green. But it will do nothing to improve the lives or address the demands of millions of working-class Brits who want more control over their lives and communities, and who voted for Brexit, and now largely back Reform UK.
This is not just an Andy Burnham problem, of course. This is a Labour problem, too. It’s the problem of a party whose historical roots in Britain’s working-class communities have long since withered. A party that speaks not for the majority of people, but against them, in tones alternately patronising and contemptuous. A party that, like the orthodoxies of the managerialist era to which it’s wedded, is now passing away before our eyes.
Burnham will no more solve Labour’s problems than a fresh coat of polish can burnish a turd.
Tim Black is associate editor of spiked.
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