Andy Burnham - how can this be allowed?

He looks too much like an Action Man figure to me, I can"t trust that look.

"We do not know enough about the actual policy changes a Reform UK-led government would impose"

Stopped reading at the second paragraph.

The point of a sovereign nation with it"s own laws and borders and being the 5th or 6th biggest economy in the world is that it can tweak visa rules to fill labour shortages any time it wants, but we need to get young people born here trained up and entering the work force first before we import millions from abroad, all the EU style FOM does is suppress wages for working people and increase borrowing as people move to more expensive cities like London (win win for bankers and Big Corp!)

The best move Labour can make is to accept they are going to lose to Reform and start nationalising all the important stuff, railways would be an excellent start, stop babbling about "diversity" and bending the knee to the EU and start nationalising, that way if Nigel wants to sell out and privatise necessary services and infrastructure to his rich pals he will have a difficult political process to negotiate.

Yes, because we have a parliamentary FPTP system that doesn't assign seats based on percentage of votes received across the entire electorate/votes cast. 411 seats in a 650 (functionally 643 cos of SF) is a colossal majority. One of the biggest of the mass franchise period.

Again, nothing wrong in arguing that this is bad. But one of the best arguments you could make is that our system does allow for these disparities. If, otoh, you want to pretend that the winning party having two thirds of the seats isnt a colossal majority, actually that minimises the impact.

I am in an online book group. Started in Covid with old Uni friends. Ladies from across UK and other countries.
The current situation came up.

We all agreed that the situation is media driven but by whom?
All agreed that other international players were behind or stoking the fire.

What was interesting was that two life long Labour supporters were very annoyed.
The one from the Greater Manchester area is not happy that the people of the North West were pawns in a UK debarcle. Losing an excellent Mayor who gave the North West an identiy and the manipulation of others to set up the post.
Again possible outside interferene? Or a cunning plan to get rid of a Labour MP and Mayor!

The other a Scot who was disgusted by Wes Steering sneeting attitude to Scotland. She stated if he becomes PM she will resign from the Labour Party which she joined as a student.
Seemingly. she is not alone. She ponders if this would be the end of Scottish Labour! Seemingly, his comments and attitude drove dome of her Scottish friends to vote SNP.

The Labour party have opened a can of worms. It is not doing the country any good.

We must ask who is behind it all?

Just heard someone say burnham is a man for the people. I honestly only see him as a man out for himself and who will change his position if it benefits him

You think getting 20% of votes from the voting electorate is a colossal majority?! Even Corbyn got more votes than that when he lost against the Tories (Corbyn got 27.5%).

It really isn’t a colossal majority, but then you are a Labour voter so I’m not surprised you are saying that 🙄

@HelenaWaitingyou can see why this is different to Johnson running as @SweetSummerHerbspp

Besides that do you think Burnham can turn the local election tide and win the by-election?

So...stop being Labour then? Closer alignment with the EU, green policy, and spending fairly on benefits are pretty much Labour DNA.

And nobody can sort the NHS out, unfortunately. There just isn't enough money coming in.

I mean they definitely have got good things done as a government. Having a Labour government has made a positive difference and they're dealing with an incredibly challenging environment.

But I've heard too many reports (from people without a particular axe to grind) that the lack of direction from No 10 has been a significant impediment to not take them seriously. I started as a Starmer supporter and I thought that even if he wasn't Mr Charisma then he would excel in having that grip on things, and yet that seems to have been exactly what has been lacking.

I work in a politically-adjacent job and I think it's really evident that people have been despairing over Starmer for quite a while over the u-turns, decisions that aren't getting made, lack of central action and failure to prioritise.

And as you say, whether you agree or disagree with any of this I don't think anyone can argue with the fact that the public have really turned against Starmer (to an extent I don't really understand) in a way I think is impossible to turn around. Changing leader is going to be messy but I think it's inevitable now.

I said colossal majority, which it was. That's a factual description. Yes, there is room for discussion on whether it's either a good or a sustainable win to have a system that creates said colossal majority on such a low percentage of public vote, but that does require naming the issue accurately.

They can"t stop, it is a disease, bending the knee to the EU and doling out cash to people who will never do a days meaningful work in their life is in their DNA, they have to go, red team/blue team is finished in the UK. Hopefully whatever clown they elect to leader will really move things to a proper bond market showdown so we can get an early election and get the country ( 5th or 6th biggest economy in the world FFS!) back on track.

Talking of stunted growth, that's what we've got right now.

By minuscule % of the voting age electorate. That’s not democracy.

Some light education for you for starters.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/may/05/reform-uk-immigration-policies-uk-economy-election

It wasn’t a great win at all. Only 20.1% of the voting age electorate voted Labour in the last election. That is not what I would call a colossal win at all. 8.5% voted Reform, who have grown in popularity massively since the GE.

We are destined for a Reform / Reform coalition next time.

Labour are stabbing themselves in the backs by getting rid of Starmer. They already looked incompetent. Now they look incompetent and divided. Replacing Starmer with an even more left wing pm like Burnham will just make them even more unpopular and will be a gift to Reform in the longer term.

She is my local MP. I would love to see the back of the pair of them.

Conservative changed PM several times

He will need to be an MP before he can go for the Labour leadership

Starmer should not have stopped him from standing several months ago before the poor loca election results. That was undemocratic this is not.

Reform have their chance.If you want the BNP in do your best

If half the country voted Reform I hugely doubt they'd be in a position where they had to seek coalition partners. Our system theoretically allows that to happen, but it's a long time since half of even votes cast were for one party. And they got a majority of seats. We're talking about a hypothetical where they have much less support.

Well that would certainly be great entertainment value!

Can you elaborate, or do you only do soundbites?

Of course they will, no one wants to look like the SNP lunatics denying democracy to Reform voters do they (especially when it is half the country voting Reform, LOL) KB will be first in line to deal with Farage, all she has done is quote his playbook since she got a handle on working the camera anyway?

Now you're talking!

Maggie Oliver has been approached to stand in Makerfield
G'wan Mags 🥰😍

My guess is actually reform will win. So what will Labour do then?

ask someone else to resign and try again, and if they continue as they are lose to reform again

They need to stop the infighting, give something back to voters, so maybe increase tax brackets or something so it feels better for everyone , stop trying to be back to the EU via the back door, stop the green malarkey increase defence spending sort the nhs and benefits out

The level of ignorance and gullibility among the voters really scares me.