To ask if you watched Andy Burnham’s bloody good speech?

[Househunt2026]

As in actually watched it and didn’t just doom scroll the commentary? It was bold and honest and pragmatic and actually made me hopeful that we have someone at the helm with a vision for a better tomorrow who has Britain’s best interests at heart.

The National Care Service is a masterstroke, paid for out of scrapping the triple lock and the very real savings of reducing NHS bills on A&E and hospital beds for elderly who should be in care but have nowhere to go.

Scrapping right to buy and increasing council control of housing, boosting the technical education track for young people, pushing renewables, nuclear and energy sovereignty, public control of key utilities for water to get bills down and reduce pollution, investing in people & getting them back to work, leasehold reform by Christmas and everyone’s energy bill will be reduced by fast tracking decoupling energy prices from global gas pricing and by having no VAT on energy bills by TOMORROW!

You can watch the whole thing here and be directly informed instead of getting your perspective filtered through all the bots and misinformation peddlers online m.youtube.com/watch?v=jyjTT_55Gi0

Yes, still waiting to hear about those teachers! I'll probably be waiting a long time. I was also keen to hear when the 1.5 million homes Labour promised will be built. According to our Ange, it was never a firm promise but a 'stretch target' whatever that is. Lying wankers.

They could increase jobs for young people by cutting taxes on business but they would never be able to bring themselves to cut a tax, however damaging. They'd rather come up with some bonkers scheme to pay businesses to hire people instead.

I honestly look at the Labour front bench and want to weep.

I've been waiting for a better tomorrow since my teens. I'm almost 60. I am political and I do vote but seriously -we should not be sitting here in 2026 with people using foodbanks and folk in in work poverty. He's completely detached from reality.

He earns 14k a month and I'm going to save 14 quid a year on VAT from my fuel bills. Im supposed to be happy at that ?

The heating bills will still go up this winter even with a small reduction, I get what you mean.

Yep agree with you on all this.

I know where the 1.5 million homes are - hidden round the back of Boris Johsnson's 40 hospitals

Not sure what point you're making other than because the Tories were shit it's ok for Labour to be just as shit/even shitter? Really?

Oh of course! It's The Farm. DS had to learn Pachebels Cannon on his trumpet and Id have this playing in my head. Probably why I forgot what it was even though it's from my yoof

No, not really. The point I'm making is that it's possible for them both to be shit; and if we complain that one is doing something bad we should take the time to point out that they're not the only ones.

He has a degree in English from Cambridge. I would think he is capable of writing his own speeches!

Fair enough. Boris was an abomination and I wish he would be exiled somewhere cold and damp.

But Labour campaigned heavily on doing better. It's a shame they haven't. And lying about targets after the fact is really frustrating. Be honest and explain why they haven't met them, don't gaslight us with nonsense jargon.

Oh yeah, I’m not saying I’m surprised he was capable of writing it - I think he’s a very, very intelligent man. I was more just noting that it’s unusual in modern politics for a speech not to be written by a team of speech writers - and I think it’s part of why it resonated with so deeply with a lot of people.

Also, seriously, anyone that accuses a man of Crocodile tears, a man that lost his father two weeks ago and has his funeral in 3 days, has a very low level of empathy.

Agreed. This thread demonstrates he has the right people rattled at least.

This I fully agree with.

Sorry Op. I like Andy Burnham as a person but I would absolutely not vote for him currently. I have absolutely zero confidence in Labour managing the economy and encouraging growth. I imagine that they are looking at ways to tax people more rather than making strong decisions. They need to tax the big corporations more definitely but I think that raising taxes generally will just lead to more of the 'squeezed middle' paying more as I think those with wealth will leave. The welfare bill is also growing at a rate which is unsustainable going forward and they can't seem to make any decisions. As my kids are getting older I am thinking more about the next step when I am no longer being tied to a particular location and I worked out that it is much cheaper for my husband and I to move somewhere like Portugal where we would pay a lot less tax on our private pensions. I voted Labour at the last election and I am so disappointed. I voted for Keir Starmer and not Andy Burnham. John Healy seems reasonably competent but I worry that he is under a lot of pressure to increase taxes in the next budget. I think the next couple of years are going to be critical for the UK. I will be listening very carefully to the October budget. Maybe all will be well but this is how i feel currently.

This ‘rattled’ line is funny, it reminds me of posters who said it about Starmer.

I'm not rattled. I'm depressed. Labour are treating him as the second coming simply because he can communicate. Starmer set a really low bar. Someone upthread said Burnham is a PM for good times, not hard times. That sums up how I feel.

Yes EasternStandard isn't reading the room. As said above I agree with most of the things he said. But his emotionally manipulative speech is making me less supportive.

Yesterday reminded me of many French friends who treated Macron like the second coming when he was first elected.

Did you mean me here? His speech is the opposite of what works imo, it’s too emotionally manipulative for a start, as you say.

Apologies, I meant DeflectionAndWhataboutery

But Macron has had a nine year presidency, in between, right? I’m guessing Andy Burnham would be okay with that! And I know this wasn’t necessarily your point, but to me everything about Macron seems more Starmer -like than Burnham -like.

I agree what’s happening in France is troubling though, and I do wonder what it’ll mean for any talk of closer ties with the E.U.

You can't discuss the ocean with a frog. They only understand the pond.

Just do one thing that benefits the people of this country. Just one. Make it happen. And then maybe there can be some hope that this party can actually make a difference. Just one. It doesn't have to be big. It doesn't have to be monetary. Something consistent. Like flytipping is an offence that now carries a £50,000 fine and ceasing of assets or littering is a £500 fine. Let's just get the streets clean. Or using a phone on public transport is an offence and a fine up to £500. Little things that add up to the bigger picture.

I'm not posting on here to be rattled or not rattled by Andy Burnham. I first voted Labour in 1987 and I understand why people get to the point where they think politicians are all the same and they don't vote. I vote. I'm politically active but I understand why a lot of people aren't.

Apparently he's going to get the unemployed back into work? How's he going to do that then. We get a VAT cut on fuel bills. Some people can't afford to pay their bills. Some people use food banks. Some people live in poverty even though they work.

Labour really need to think seriously about the rise of Restore Britain and Reform. I'm in Scotland and Reform have 17 MSPs. They were all elected via the list system but people voted for them all the same. There's loads of money being thrown at them and they are campaigning on certain issues. Immigrants being the main one.

My Facebook feed is awash with people who are pro Reform and I live in an area that was solid Labour until 2015 until the SNP got in and the seat has swung back and forth between Labour and SNP since then.

A lot of working class people in my area are posting pro Reform sound bites on their Facebook. I remember one girl posted something about Black delivery men and how her daughter would hide if a Black Just Eat delivery driver came to the front door. It got retweeted hundreds of times.

They got 20 per cent of all votes cast both on the constituency and on the list which might not sound like much -but their message is getting through to people whether people like it or not. I would never vote for either party but Labour can't guarantee that the next election is theirs.

He’s a decent public speaker

but less than 4 months ago he got votes in by makerfielf by saying he won’t rejoin the EU

and now he says it’s on the table

he’s nothing more than a 2 faced wanker
look at the way he got rid of KS

I hope he gets trounced at the next election

Im in Scotland and live under a labour council. My town looks like a bin

Don't think Starmer was much better tbh. He was desperate to be PM.