The former mayor made his first appearance as Prime Minister in the House of Commons.
Andy Burnham dealt humiliating blow with just five words on BBC Breakfast (Image: Getty)
Andy Burnham addressed the House of Commons for the first time since taking power. The prime minister said “a series of wrong turns” since the 1980s had seen economic power in the UK privatised and pointed to the water industry as “a leaking monument to that approach – a country run in the private rather than public interest”. He is now set to take part in his first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. He reiterated his belief that political power had been centralised and announced he would be making devolution powers available to more areas in England. He is now set to take part in his first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
Former Conservative party chairman Kevin Hollinrake appeared on BBC Breakfast where he issued a five-word statement in a humiliating blow to the Labour leader. He declared, “we should all be worried” following Burnham’s speech in the House of Commons.
“There’s no doubt that he’s got a better style than Keir Starmer,” the chairman remarked, “but it’s really not that difficult, let’s be honest.”
He continued: “Burnham seems to think we’re in the glory days of the 1970s but Andy Burnham wasn’t born until the 1970s. I remember the 1970s and Britain wasn’t a great place in those days. You had bodies unburied. You had refuse piling up in the streets.”
He continued: “You had a inflation at 24 per cent and we had to go the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. If that’s a sign of things to come, I think we should all be worried about it.
I don’t think the Labour Party has the answers we need to run this country properly.”
The chairman suggested Burnham needs to raise taxes and fund our defence.
He added: “To do that, they have got to cut the cost of doing government which is reforming welfare, reducing the size of the civil service.”
Burnham became prime minister on 20 July shortly after Parliament closed for the summer recess.
Tuesday marked the first day of the new parliamentary session and provided his first opportunity to address MPs and take questions.
He told the House of Commons that “Britain is not where we would wish it to be”, but promised to “build a new sense of optimism around the country”.