“The GOLDEN BOY” | Andy Burnham Confirms Intention To Stand In By-Election

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]join the brilliant broadcaster, historian and fellow at the new culture forum, Rafe Hidle Manu on this auspicious day. Welcome Rafe.

[00:00:10]>> Hi there, Kevin. Yes, what a day indeed.

[00:00:13]>> It certainly is. Now, uh Nigel Farage has just posted this on Twitter or X as it's now called. Uh unsurprisingly, he said, "We look forward to the Makerfield bi-election. reform will throw absolutely everything at it. Now, this is because of course at Labour who seem to think democracy is a sort of board game that they can carve up to their own advantage. Uh they don't seem to care about the people. Oh, well, we've got a plan now. Uh we found a constituency. Um the people of Makerfield now you vote for Andy Burnham because we need to get him down to Westminster and into number 10 uh fourth with well uh Maker Field the uh the last MP or the current MP who's mired in scandal by the way Josh Simons he's stepping aside his majority is 5,399.

[00:01:07]That's pretty small. Uh and at the locals for the local elections last Thursday, uh Reform UK uh scooped up more than 50% of the vote. They got nearly all the local uh council seats in the Makerfield area. The idea that Andy Burnham is going to waltz that is for the birds. He is in for a very tough time. And I would say Reform UK have got every chance of beating him. And because they're being so arrogant about democracy, because they're take taking the good people of Makerfield for granted in the most disgusting way, I damn well hope that Reform UK kick Bernham's ass.

[00:01:51]Yes. Well, of course, this would be the most wonderful upset, wouldn't it?

[00:01:54]Because uh Andy Bernham right now seems to be the golden boy of the uh Labor Party members, the one that they're most in love with. And what a delicious dessert would it be for all of us if he gets skewered by Nigel and reform in this bi-election. That of course is assuming that Andy Bernham gets approved. I mean uh it seems as if he's got a clear path now to to to try to get into parliament. But we saw what happened last time at the Gorton and Denton bi-election. Uh he wanted to be the candidate for that. Kier Stalmer of course being so paranoid and scared about his own future uh didn't consider the uh benefits to the Labour party but was more concerned with saving his own skin and then went himself to the NEC.

[00:02:41]What a what a miserable sight to see the prime minister actually going himself to actually block Andy Bernham's candidacy there. The big question is will he do that now? He's a severely weakened prime minister. Uh people now seem to think he's putting himself before his party.

[00:02:58]>> They think that they think that it's a fact.

[00:03:02]>> If he tries to block Andy Burnham now, I think you're going to have allout civil war. And I think the worst thing for Starman will be to try to block Burnham because I think a lot of the people who are supporting Starman now would turn against him because most people I think uh think that Andy Bernham is one of the last chances that the Labour party has indeed. But the reality is there's only one seat in the country, but is the safest seat or the second safest seat uh for the Labour Party. It's right within his manner of the Manchester area.

[00:03:33]That's the only place he could be guaranteed more or less of winning a seat. It's all up for grabs in Makerfield.

[00:03:39]>> Yeah, he's certainly not guaranteed to win Makerfield. Uh I suspect that Starmer will uh let the NEC approve Burnham this time because I think Starmmer at the end of the day does know that he's reached the end of the line.

[00:03:55]Uh but what do you make of West Streeting today uh who resigned but didn't mount an official challenge?

[00:04:03]That's because it turns out he doesn't have the requisite 81 MPs to support him. He's only got 44 apparently.

[00:04:10]Meanwhile, we've got old an Raina saying she's been cleared by HMRC.

[00:04:17]In fact, uh Harry Cole was just pointing out to me she hasn't been cleared. She was found guilty of dodging her stamp duty tax, but uh she has paid back the 40,000 quid uh that according to HMRC she tried to avoid. So, she hasn't actually been cleared, but she doesn't seem to have factored into her little scheme that if she really does want to mount a challenge to Sama, if she really does want to be prime minister or or even, and she definitely wants this, to be a part of the next cabinet, a senior cabinet minister, she's going to have to publish the HMRC's uh verdict on her shenanigans. I don't think she has factored that in. That might be an uncomfortable moment for her, but she's on maneuver. She fancies it. Ed Milliband fancies it. Uh, and there may even be uh, you know, Shabbala Mammud might be interested. Bridget Phillipsson. All of which adds up to what we're what we're witnessing now or this country is not being governed. uh the people who are supposed to be governing this country are involved in interine squables uh and are delivering a disgraceful abrogation of their duty.

[00:05:30]This country is a drift at sea while this government has become a paralyzed wounded animal incapable of governing.

[00:05:38]It's a disgrace.

[00:05:40]>> Yes. And just remember they took the moral high ground for so long uh saying we are the party of adults and maturity.

[00:05:47]We will bring stability where the Tories had chaos. And it took the Tories over a decade to get into the position that the Labour Party find itself in after not even two years and they're mired in just the same sort of sorted squalid sort of uh civil war internet fighting as you say and the Labour party is so devoid of talent that of the four leading candidates to replace Star uh they're all failures right Ed Milliban we already tried him out right he's already been for a test died and he was a national humiliation. We remember the Ed Stone. We remember that damn ham sandwich he tried to eat. Nobody likes him. He is completely unsuitable. And Andy Burnham, the golden boy, Andy Burnham. This is a man who twice >> twice failed >> and lost the leadership campaign. So we can the best that the Labour party can give us to replace Starmmer are failures. What a damning indictment. And then you have Wes Streeting. I don't know what Wes Streeting was thinking because he does not have the voters of the Labour Party on side. He might be popular with some of the more right-wing people in the Labor Party, but all the polling shows that if in a head-to-head against Starmer even as low as loathed as Starmer is, he would wallop uh Wes Streeting. Uh we knew from Tuesday actually that he didn't have the numbers because if he had the numbers on Tuesday, he would have uh >> he would have struck. Yeah, you're right. He would have struck. Yeah. And that's why he he took so long to but I think uh Harry Cole was just saying to me that he marched himself so far up the hill there was no way back and he had to resign even though he didn't have the numbers and he probably now with Andy Burnham on the way never will get the numbers. So uh Burnham looks like looks to be the man they want to anoint. But once again Rafe you know this is just a carve up. This is using democracy as if it's something to be manipulated. Did Did we vote for any of this? You know, what about the people? What about the people of this country who are supposed to be the participants in democracy?

[00:07:55]What do these Labor ls think they're doing? This is a disgusting spectacle.

[00:08:01]Of course, and look, people's trust in democracy has been worn so thin. I think we're at a very dangerous point because they voted in Tory after Tory after Tory government, betrayal after betrayal after betrayal. They voted for Brexit.

[00:08:16]That was a betrayal. Now once again, they see the incompetence, the inetness, and the complete lack of a plan by the Labor Party that promised change, but had no idea how they were going to deliver any of that change. And the leadership of the Labour Party is just so lacking in talent, in charisma, in vision, in anything to give people hope.

[00:08:38]And this will be bad at, you know, at at any time. But now when we face so many existential crises, the economy, the NHS, immigration, geopolitical instability. This is a time for a statesman to come forward. And in the past, we've been really lucky in this country. The old adage was cometh the hour, cometh the man. And we had Thatcher in 79. We got Churchill in 1940. We're in an equally bad position now. I would say probably worse at 1979.

[00:09:08]And there is nobody on the horizon who can step into the position now to save this country. That's what's so dire. And that's why it's so important, of course, at the next election we do get a strong right-wing government that can take those steps because otherwise, you know, we are looking at the edge of the abyss right now.

[00:09:24]>> I think you're right. I think you're right. The firmament is falling apart at the seams. Now, there is one uh woman of destiny who I'm afraid is the leader of the wrong party. So, the Tories, I think, have become a onewoman band, but boy oh boy, what a band. I mean, Chem Bono is on fire. Now, I'm going to play you now. Uh, in fairness, I got to admit this is a Tory uh party propaganda film, but it does sum up the way Kem has just been magnificent. uh uh uh putting these Labor losers in their place. Watch this.

[00:10:00]>> Why don't you just do your job? Do your job. There's no point him giving me dirty looks. We all know what he's been up to. We all know. Well, they don't agree with this agenda. In which case, what on earth are we all doing here?

[00:10:13]>> Oh, I'm not done yet. I'm not done yet.

[00:10:15]There is plenty more coming. There were 24 U-turns in that first parliamentary session. winter fuel, family farms, grooming gangs, welfare reforms, social media for under 16s, day one workers rights, the list goes on and on. And every single one of these U-turns had at its core a single issue. The prime minister's total lack of judgment. This is a man who faced with a crisis of vision, charisma, and electoral success sent for Gordon Brown. banned from pubs, banned from hairdressers, which is presumably she's presumably why all the women on the front bench have the same hairstyle.

[00:10:57]>> I love that final line. But, you know, cometh the hour cometh a woman. I'm I'm afraid sadly, you know, the Tory party is basically just her. But what a woman.

[00:11:07]Amazing.

[00:11:08]>> Yeah. Brilliant performance. Outshawn Liz Truss and Theresa May at any point.

[00:11:13]Uh, shades of the iron lady there. the humor, the wit, uh the cold, steely glare towards West Streeting and the sight of that front bench. I mean, someone just didn't make a painting of that because it was absolutely glorious.

[00:11:26]You couldn't get sterner, more glum faces. And then Lady Nuji, uh Emily Thornbury looking like Les Dawson in drag on the back bench on the bench there.

[00:11:39]>> She stood up, didn't she, in all her pomp and she's not used to being dominated. Old Emily, she said, "This is inappropriate." And the old Kem Bo said, "Sit down. I'm not done yet." Never has Thornbury been dominated like that. She looks shock.

[00:11:55]>> She looked like from and Ada. Exactly. It was a remark remarkable scene. Hats off to, you know, hats off to Chem. But unfortunately, as you were saying, she is there's no point having a great leader of a party that is so full of wets. And of course today we just had out of Worersha the story that the uh Tory leader in Worstersha Council allied did a coalition with the Green Party and the Lib Dems come on to take control away from the reform party of Worersha Council. So there you go.

[00:12:26]>> Kem suspended that person suspended them immediately.

[00:12:30]>> But it goes to show you the type of person that still has elected office within the Tory party. Yeah, this is why generous left. This is why Braman left.

[00:12:39]>> Yeah, they're just a bunch of lib dems.

[00:12:42]And uh you know, the migrant crisis has been wor made worse by the Labor party and the Labor government. No mean feat.

[00:12:48]But let's never forget uh the Conservatives caused it and uh allowed it to flourish. It's their fault. And that's why the electorate, I don't think we'll ever forgive them. Poor Kem. Uh she's the wrong woman at She's the right woman at the wrong time. Uh Rafe, fantastic to talk to you. Come on again soon because I suspect there's going to be lots to talk about in the days to come. That's the excellent Rafe Hydel Manu, broadcaster, historian, and fellow at the New Culture Forum.