“The closer Andy Burnham gets to Downing Street, the more worried I get… On the evidence so far it is hard to escape the suspicion that he is what so many profiles have suggested: a shapeshifter and people-pleaser who ducks hard decisions”

Ffs, Starmer now getting stick because he gave a measured response to a question about the red card episode, his detractors expect him to be responsible for everything and anything which happens, it's so bloody tedious.

@australianlabor.bsky.social @albomp.bsky.social Instead of sending billions to a rapist in America invest in Australia's future. Do this www.ecoportal.net/en/switzerla...

The thing is if you use devious means to win a seat and then use devious means to unseat an elected PM you’re forever viewed as devious. Politically and personally. How can anyone restore trust after that? Simple answer. They can’t. We need an alternative to Burnham

Chris Mason's gone very quiet - I hope his friends are keeping an eye on him www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/poli...

Thanks. I don’t think The Guardian will be happy until Corbyn is made leader again.

Another 'ditto'.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Listen and realise what Labour MPs have done in bringing this man down ! Heartbreaking !

Keir Starmer, 'I didn’t enter politics to be Prime Minister'. But Andy Burnham did. He's just proved he did by ambushing Keir Starmer in such an appalling manner. A debacle so distasteful that some of us no longer feel we can support Labour.

Ditto

Congratulations to my PM. Two years today since you won a landslide victory against all the odds. I’ve been proud to watch you fulfil your duty to our Country. I thank you for everything you have done. I’m bereft at the way you’ve been treated and am truly sorry to see you go 🌹

'Starmer tells of 'intensely personal' decision to quit and warns Burnham in first interview since resigning' BBC Another misleading headline. Starmer merely 'warns' Burnham that it will be impossible to separate the global from domestic matters and he may have to spend mor time on the global.

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Instead of asking for people to not use their AC in the heatwave, how about turning off the data centers instead?

@seanlwoodcock.bsky.social I imagine how you feel about this. Other MPs need to know members' strength of feeling. Labour members and voters must not be bypassed. Email your MP and tell them a change of this magnitude cannot be imposed from above: holdtheline.org.uk/email-mp

Lisa Nandy, the current culture Secretary is leaving X and so is her dept? This is really good news but she could legislate against this site, she has the power. And she states she’s going on FB & Instagram FB/Instagram owned by meta has as much misinformation as any site. Performative

Wordle 1,840 4/6 ⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜ @andyburnham has no #electoral #mandate @uklabour has #lost all #credibility with the #public This is an #undemocratic #coup characterised by #arrogance and #duplicity on a scale that would embarrass the @Conservatives 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I’ve read 2 posts on Twitter that sum it up for me. 1. Starmer was not expected to win in 2024. Planners thought they had longer to run. Starmer expected to clean up Party only. Not be PM 2. They’ve been planning Manchester base for many years. This all needs an investigation

I think these Northern MPs who’ve been planning this Labour coup for years will do more to create a North/South divide than they’ll solve. This is not good. Not good at all.

The biography of Andy Burnham. Nice.

This is the tweet I read that just sounds authentic to me.

We need to ensure the protections for the Green Belt are strengthened in the light of the necessary new house building. Currently Wiltshire Council is allowing the Green Belt to be eroded, bit by bit, with the landowners being permitted continual single dwellings.

'I take responsibility to fund defence plan extremely seriously, says Burnham' Profound. Anyone can see why he's the new P.M. (not). Certainly no false modesty.

Just do it. 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Labour members and voters must not be bypassed. Email your MP and tell them a change of this magnitude cannot be imposed from above: holdtheline.org.uk/email-mp

Why is Andy Burnham still posting there?

Less than 2% of the land in Wiltshire is Green Belt. Wiltshire has to meet government housing targets. It could easily do this without encroaching on the Green Belt. Nevertheless, neither parish councils nor Wiltshire County Council is doing anything like enough to protect its Green Belt.

Infinite growth on a finite planet is a physical impossibility.

Has anyone looked at the total number of negative g̶o̶s̶s̶i̶p̶ opinion pieces Chris Mason wrote about the various PMs when the Tories were in power as opposed to now?

There's an obvious need for housing. There's also a need to protect the Green Belt. Less than 2% of land in Wiltshire is Green Belt. It's not being protected by parish councils and certainly not by Wiltshire CC. Wiltshire's a big county. If only 2% of it is Green Belt, building can be elsewhere.

Ditto

No. I do not trust Burnham. His manoeuvrings to force this takeover has ensured it will be near impossible for me to trust him ever again. We all need someone we can trust as Labour leader. People need to look beyond Burnham, and urgently.

Chris Mason: Starmer's defence plan leaves crunching trade‑offs for Burnham to confront Healey and Carns' defence plan would leave even more.

I found Burnham's speech, which was fundamentally about devolution and localism, too light on detail. What worked in Manchester won't necessarily be easily replicated elsewhere. Not all towns/cities will have a Burnham. Those of us living in rural areas are yet to be impressed.

Ditto

Reading the write up of the PM's speech on defence I had a sense of safety. With Burnham I don't feel that. He may be personable, but has he got the ballast to work at this level?

As a Labour voter (currently pretty disillusioned tbh) I want to see this govt succeed. But I have no more belief in, or respect for Burnham than any other party at the moment. What's the old adage re people in politics....'they're all the same'. Under Starmer I never gave it much credence.

Morning all. As the Burnham bonanza goes on I feel as if we've all been hung out to dry. Apparently his almost plagiaristic speech gave people hope because he had a bit more x factor in it's delivery than Starmer. Personally, I preferred a person rather than a persona.

He didn't do much to support Starmer and the Government when he was Mayor, we now know it's because he was busy planning how to depose Starmer. How different it could have been if Burnham and his PLP supporters had stood with Starmer rather than behind him sharpening their knives.

I've noticed a lot of sniping about north and south on here since Burnham's speeches, I don't disagree with him but he needs to be careful about causing even more division. Hes not off to a good start with the way he engineered the unnecessary by-election.

Such a shame that there isn't a political party that recognises the need for more house building BUT also acknowledges that more houses mean the Green Belt needs even stronger protections.

I thought Burnham’s speech was ok, I even felt some of what he said was good and positive. His delivery is def better than Starmer’s. But I don’t trust him. So I don’t believe what he says. And so I dismissed it. All of it. And that’s a big problem.

"If he wanted to get around the overseas donations cap, he may have to return to live in the UK, which would make him liable for UK tax on earnings from a fortune estimated to be more than £18bn." 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Serious point guys, I can’t be the only person on the planet whose family are hugely benefitting from what Keir Starmer has done in the last 2 years’ I’m on a break in Scarborough today and the town is bustling with major works refurbishing the huge railway station in full flow. i got a pension rise

I've been waiting for a political party which will compliment the much needed call for housing with the equally necessary protections for the Green Belt.

How about you start blaming *some* of them? Any of them, in fact. Morning.

"There is no such thing as Starmerism and there never will be," Starmer reportedly said. He was a self acclaimed pragmantist. That's been translated into a lack of vision. If what we heard yesterday was Burnham's vision, I'll take Starmer's pragmatism, any day.

He made no mention of EU in all that claptrap about raising local economies .. no mention of NHS etc etc .. syrup not sustenance!

Buses are Red and Buses are green Whether he can deliver Remains to be seen Buses are blue and Buses are yellow! Believe in King Andy Such a ----- wee fellow. He has an English degree from Cambridge no less so hope this offering from a lesser mortal is ok

WTF is this if not putting money in peoples pockets?

Burnham has the whole of the UK to look after and resonate with. Not just the North. No PM has ever focused on just one area. This is nonsense. I can’t see how he can remotely undertake this job. He thinks locally. We need an international PM FFS