Andy Burnham has put his foot in it again. This is becoming a habit. And an increasingly costly one.
King Charles measures his words carefully, unlike our loose-lipped PM (Image: Getty)
The PM’s easy manner has earned him an entirely undeserved reputation as a good communicator. He isn’t. Listen to the actual words coming out of his mouth and you quickly discover he’ll spout any old rubbish, leaving somebody else to clean up the mess. He’s just done it again. Only this time he hasn’t merely embarrassed himself. He’s embarrassed the King, at a particularly sensitive moment.
Charles arrived in Antigua and Barbuda knowing he will face financially crippling demands for slavery reparations from Caribbean campaigners. Established policy is not to apologise or offer reparations, and for a very good reason. So blundering Andy Burnham chose this exact moment to announce that he was “open” to a formal apology. The King must want to throttle him, although he’ll have to join a long queue. He does this all the time.
Burnham’s first big reversal was running for PM in the first place. Within days of assuring Greater Manchester he was committed to being its mayor, he triggered the Makerfield by-election and cleared off. We witnessed another humiliating reverse ferret in July, when he hinted he might end the freeze on the £12,570 personal allowance. Days later, he said it was merely an option for the Budget. It wasn’t. Burnham just thought we’d like to hear it.
He floated tax rises for wealthier people, prompting speculation that he was backing a controversial wealth tax. His team swiftly moved to put out that fire. Burnham blundered on, making a massive U-turn on social care.
Asked whether freezing private-sector rents could be part of his cost-of-living package, he replied: “We’re looking at all of those things.” Within days, it emerged officials weren’t looking at them at all. Undeterred, Burnham said he would review the early prisoner release policy, giving the impression that he would toughen up. The releases kept coming, victims went into hiding. The PM then backtracked over migrant benefits.
In September, Burnham told the Commons there was “no way” legendary stargazing hub Jodrell Bank would close on his watch. You didn’t need a telescope to spot that whopper. Shortly afterwards, the Government confirmed funding for its telescope network would end in 2028. He made a massive U-turn on Heathrow expansion too.
At PMQs, he declared that “national security can’t come at the expense of social security”. Critics pointed out that without national security, there is no social security, and not much of a country either. Burnham later explained he had been talking about social security in the broadest sense. What a clot.
He dropped suggestions that the ban on drinking in sight of the pitch at football grounds should be lifted, when the police said it definitely should not. He then decided what the Manchester City scandal really needed an intervention from Number 10. So he said he would be “really concerned” if the club’s Abu Dhabi owners sold up, prompting another clarification from Downing Street that nobody was above the rules. This time he was dubbed the field marshal of flip-flops.
In October, he told podcast The Rest Is Politics he had been given a “clear answer” that Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. This prompted the Head of MI5 to say he had just handed a gift to Putin’s trolls. Another Downing Street clarification duly followed. He’s keeping the comms team busy.
In Parliament, the PM described an individual as “responsible for the murder” of Ann Widdecombe, despite the legal process being ongoing. He was forced to apologise and correct the official Hansard record.
On Brexit, loose-lips Burnham has lurched from one blunder to the next. He’s also had to retreat from pre-PM comments about being “in hock to the bond markets” and transgender males using women’s toilets. Plenty of women would like to throttle him for that.
Looking at that list, the King may have got off lightly. Charles can be relieved about one thing. Burnham didn’t actually promise to pay slavery reparations. There’s still time. He only needs to open his mouth.