Burnham said that his byelection win was the “last chance” to change the country,. a chance “to lay out a new path for Britain”.
double quotation mark It is our last chance to change, but we’re going to take it, aren’t we? We are going to take that opportunity and we are going to lay out a new path for Britain.
The word Makerfield in the future must be known as a byword for the change that came to British politics. This is the moment.
We’ve been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn’t worked for people. places in this part of the world, and this now is the change moment.
We have an opportunity to turn the tide. to make the country feel like it’s working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again.”
I think we need in this country right now for people to feel a sense of hope. there is something better to work towards on the horizon.
Keir Starmer has told Labour party staffers that they should focus on the fight against Reform UK.
In a call, he told them:
double quotation mark The tide is turning on Reform. If you look at the national polling. Reform are now only six or seven points ahead of Labour in the national polls, which two years into a five year parliament is a place that we can make huge advances from.
The next opportunity is the Greater Manchester mayoralty, which now will follow as a result of the Makerfield by-election. It’s a chance to go and take the fight to Reform.
It’s really important, it’s a huge byelection, one of the biggest by-elections we’ll ever run. It is really important that we maintain that Labour mayoralty, and that we take Reform on.
At the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson dismissed suggestions there might be a vacancy at No 10. The spokesperson said Stamer had been ‘crystal clear’ he would fight any leadership challenge. The spokesperson said:
double quotation mark The prime minister has been very clear this morning that there’s more to do. He said ‘that’s what I’m focused on, that was what I was elected to do, which is to serve my country’,. that’s the job he’s getting on with.
The CBI has warned the government against “a summer of speculation and drift”. In a statement, Rain Newton-Smith, the CBI chief executive, said:
double quotation mark The UK cannot afford a summer of speculation. drift while politicians are distracted by internal party dynamics.
The government must remain focused on delivery and implementation.
For strong, stable economic growth you need strong, stable, consistent government.
Political uncertainty dampens business confidence and investment, impacting job creation, wages and the cost of living.
Business needs to know that the government can take big decisions, will deliver on its commitments. is prepared to tackle the rising costs of doing business.
Shakespeare would have loved this: two serious figures, both with a claim to the moral leadership of their party, both with a sense of destiny, one from the north, one from the south, involved in a succession battle,. addressing their loyalists from opposite ends of the country. Shakespeare not being available, let’s hope James Graham does the honours.
Andy Burnham’s win, and in particular the scale of it, has pitched him into a standoff against Keir Starmer. It will probably take a while to resolve,. neither of the two men said anything particularly revealing this morning about the tactics they will deploy. But the two interventions did tell us quite a lot about the state of play.
Starmer went first. with a pooled TV interview (a particularly soulless form of communication championed by No 10 for some years now, allowing the PM to deliver normally pre-scripted lines-to-take, safe in the knowledge there won’t be much time for follow-up questions). Starmer was polite about Burnham, seemed genuinely pleased about Reform UK hitting the buffers,. repeated what he has been saying for weeks about intending to fight any leadership challenge. The struggle for journalists it to work out to what extent he means it,. today he sounded no more gung-ho, or no more insincere, than he has done in the past. We don’t know; perhaps he doesn’t either.
Starmer was at his best explaining why he thinks the government had notched up some solid achievements to its credit. (See 10.30am and 10.36am.) In some respects it has. But the voters of Makerfied clearly did not think so, because they were voting for Burnham to turf him out.
Burnham spoke shortly afterwards. He was giving a stump speech to supporters,. it was a version of the address he has been giving throughout the campaign. He did not reference Starmer, gave no credit to the PM for the things Starmer thinks have gone well,. he spoke as if his byelection victory was about to herald a transformation on a par with the end of winter in Narnia.
There was no common ground; Starmer. Burnham sounded as if they were talking about different governments and different countries, one on the road to recovery, the other a basket case.
We still don’t know what’s coming in Act 2. Already there are reports of people in the Burnham team saying that. if Starmer does not agree to quit voluntarily, it might get rather more unpleasant. We’ll see.
Here are some more pictures from Andy Burnham’s rally.
In his speech Burnham set out his view again of how he would apply what he calls “the Makerfield test”. He said:
double quotation mark We will take the energy of this campaign. we will bring it forward into changing British politics for the better, and to make this part of the world – if you like Makerfield test – at the heart of British politics.
When policies come forward. if they don’t work for people here, for the places of this constituency, if they don’t lift people up, then they shouldn’t happen at all.
We’ve not had a country run on that basis before. Places like this have often been an afterthought. Westminster has looked past the communities of this constituency.
Well no more. That changes today.
Burnham suggested a Reform UK win in the byelection would have shown. Britain was starting to take a path towards “greater darkness”.
double quotation mark The best thing that we can say about last night is that there was a risk that we would carry on seeing Britain. the politics of our country go down a path towards greater darkness and division, and ending up somewhere like the United States of America where people don’t talk to each other in the street if they vote different ways or in their workplace.
We will not let that happen here. We will bring people back together.
I said last night, I will be a member of parliament for everybody, however they voted. I will work on a place first, not a party first basis.
I know people who normally vote for the Conservatives. the Liberal Democrats, the Greens, perhaps voted Reform in May, I know they gave me their votes to give me that last chance to do something.
And I respect them for doing that. And I will always then work in the way that that shows how much I value what they did. And that’s the kind of change we need to change in our politics to make it work again for people.
Burnham said that his byelection win was the “last chance” to change the country,. a chance “to lay out a new path for Britain”.
double quotation mark It is our last chance to change, but we’re going to take it, aren’t we? We are going to take that opportunity and we are going to lay out a new path for Britain.
The word Makerfield in the future must be known as a byword for the change that came to British politics. This is the moment.
We’ve been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn’t worked for people. places in this part of the world, and this now is the change moment.
We have an opportunity to turn the tide. to make the country feel like it’s working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again.”
I think we need in this country right now for people to feel a sense of hope. there is something better to work towards on the horizon.
Burnham said he wanted change too to government immigration policy.
double quotation mark A change too, from the Home Office.
I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system. that cut price approach to procurement.
That means areas like this can end up like HMO [houses in multiple occupation] Britain.
It’s not fair that they think that they can just operate like that. not hear the call of people here, the decent people here who always will do the right thing, the compassionate thing, but not when it’s unfair in terms of the way places like this are treated.
Burnham says change to the education system also needed.
double quotation mark No more an education system dominated by the university route, but an education system that offers a path for everybody, academic. technical, in equal balance.
That’s what we need if we are to change this. And when I say change to public procurement. as a result of using the power of it, get more work placements for people.
I guarantee a work placement for every 16 to 18 year old who wants one.
Burnham says he wants to address the cost of living.
double quotation mark You have to do something to make life more affordable. to put more money in people’s pockets, to give people more breathing space again so that they can have a better life. That’s what people were saying. And we must respond to that.
He says he wants to bring down water bills. energy bills, just as he did with bus fares in Greater Manchester
double quotation mark And I’m talking about public procurement, it’s about time we started backing British business and British.
Burnham says this campaign was won by a band of strong, northern power women.
He particularly mentions Louise Haigh and Anneleise Midgley.
He says in May people issued a call for change.
And Josh Simons responded.
Addressing Simons, he says:
double quotation mark It needed a response. It needed a profound response. And you did. something incredibly selfless in stepping forward, working with me to see how we did respond to what people said.
He says, in giving up his seat, Simons made a “significant sacrifice”.
Burnham starts: “What a team, everybody. And what a campaign.”
He thanks the staff at the club where his campaign has been based.
People have put up with a lot of inconvenience, he says.
But they have done it with good humour, which he says is part of the character of the place.
Andy Burnham is arriving for his rally.
Louise Haigh, one of his campaign managers, introduces him. She says he could hardly have found a harder seat to fight a byelection in. of the strength of the Reform UK.
But the Labour campaign set records every day, she says. It was delivering a message of hope.
People wanted to see '“hope and positivity”.
Andy Burnham will shortly be speaking at a victory rally in Makerfield.
Asked if he would take part in a leadership contest, Starmer started by saying there was no contest. And he said he did not think such a contest should happen.
Burnham should be focusing on the Greater Manchester mayoral contest, he suggested.
double quotation mark If there is a contest, then yes, I will stand.
I have said repeatedly, I am not going to walk away from that.
In his pooled TV clip Starmer went on:
double quotation mark If we’d sat here doing this interview at the general election 2024,. you’d put me in two years’ time the economy will be stabilised, in two years’ time waiting lists will be coming down, in two years’ time migration will be back under control, in two years’ time we’ll have '[the relationship we’ve got wih the EU]’, and in two years’ time Reform would be on the run and the tide would be turning, I would have said that would be a very good place to be, and that’s the place we’re in.
In his pooled TV clip, Starmer defended his record, claiming he had done “incredible things”.
double quotation mark We had a mandate two years ago to carry out change, but we’ve done incredible things.
Two years ago, people said to me it’s not possible to stabilise the economy. invest in your public services and bring down waiting lists. You’re going to have to choose one or the other. We’ve done both.
Two years people said it’s not possible to get migration down from the level of the Tories left it at. which was nearly a million. We brought it down to a fifth of that number.
Two years ago people said it’s not possible to get a much closer. better relationship with the EU … We’ve achieved that.
So a huge amount has been achieved. There’s more to do.
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