Andy Burnham is standing!

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This is the first time in ages I've felt excited and hopeful about our politics. Will he be blocked by Starmer's allies?

Lincolnshire isn’t in the north. More Midlands?

I am aware, I was talking about where there seems to be support not votes. Its impossible to tell if this support will lead to votes when there is an election.
Of course due to the nature of Reform there may well be more noise than real support

its North.
Skegness, Scunthorpe etc
I suppose you could argue that Boston is Midlands but for most Northerners Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire is where The North starts

Whaaaat? On the international stage they’ve been royally humiliated by Trump on Chagos and Starmer didn’t dare go to Davos for fear of being summoned to b the Headmaster’s office.
Starmer is a complete joke internationally - even more so than here…

?

I live in Sheffield. The only Reform councillor lost his seat in the last election. No Reform at all in this northern city.

Same here. Not a single non Labour MP to be seen for miles and we have all Labour councillors too. The Red Wall has 94.44% Labour MPs and not a single Reform MP. Yet Northerners are still getting a massive kicking because they may vote Reform at the next GE. Oh and for having the temerity to want a northern PM. Can you blame us?

Reform are dropping in the Polls, have been for several months now.

On just 24% according to YouGov.

Reform promised to be a "New Broom" reality is, they are a party of unknowns and ex Tories now.

Nope, afraid not. Donnie came as close as that massive narcissist ever comes to backing down over Greenland, where Starmer and European leaders took a united approach, and with his concession that British soldiers were 'very brave' after Starmer called him directly. Trump is a huge headache for the entire globe but I can't see anyone who'd handle him on behalf the UK better than Starmer. Try again.

So Trump backing the Chagos deal and then doing a U-turn... Trump humiliated over Greenland, forced to state UK soldiers brave and loyal... none of that matters... just your silly remarks about the UK's PM.

Starmer goes to international summits and people like you criticise, he doesn't go and you criticise, its hilarious & v transparent.

Unless 'telephone engineer' has a different meaning from all other Engineers, Engineers are middle to upper class. Receptionist also isn't what I would call working class ie working in a factory or ditch digging.

Not in our heads, but in fact. If one believes that females don't have our hard won right to female only safe single sex spaces, then they're a misogynist. It's really that simple. There no other way around it.

A telephone engineer is someone who fixes your phone lines. It's not the same as a civil engineer, who will need degree (s) and post graduate qualifications.

I mean, this is it in a nutshell.

The priority should be not mindlessly spunking public money up the wall to chase a vanity contest.

If he wants to return to Westminster he can go for that in the future. Chopping and changing his mind at great cost to the taxpayer, just to satisfy a personal ambition, really isn’t acceptable.

I think this reflects poorly on Andy Burnham, especially as his response seemed pretty sour too. Being refused permission due to the public cost seems entirely reasonable, especially in the current climate. Can you imagine the field day the opposition would have had about all the needlessly wasted money if he’d been allowed to go ahead?!

People may well view it as meanness by Keir Starmer but it’s the only sensible decision.

I do think the Labour Party would have had a hard time justifying how it’s ok to spend money on an unnecessary mayoral election while at the same time allowing councils to cancel elections for the same reason.

Telephone engineers are not upper class 😂

I'm going to defend "Telecoms Engineers" their job covers a huge area of "engineering"
Lines people may not have degree's etc but those who work on the network - planning and programing will have higher level qualifications.

Telephone exchanges (and private business ones) even going back 40 or 50s years, are extremely complex & earlier ones (electro - mechanical) were master pieces of engineering.

All very different now, with internet and voice systems, most people on here wouldn't have a clue to their designs & complexities.

Defend it all you want but the fact is telephone engineers in the ordinary sense of the term don’t need degrees and earn about £30k a year. Loads of lads I went to school with got jobs as telephone engineers. The idea they are middle class never mind upper class is hilarious. The mental gymnastics some people will do to try to prove a point is ridiculous.

Andy Burnham’s dad was a telephone engineer not a telecoms engineer. Totally different thing.

Ha ha i worked for a few telecoms companies over many years and even back in the 80s, after the sell off of the GPO, guys were earning 60k plus with OT.

You seem to to think that telecoms is a few poles, an Openreach van and some copper wire but even then, all you would see is a tangle of wires.

As i said but which you seem incapable of comprehending, is that "Telecoms Engineer" covers a huge range of skills and salaries, there is no "ordinary" definition.

You re commenting on an industry that you know nothing about.

tjat may all be true but he wasn’t a telecoms engineer.

Andy Burnham is 4 years older than me.

When l was at school a telephone engineer did an apprenticeship at 16. It was considered a job like plastering or plumbing.

I think Starmer is doomed and will not be leading Labour into the next election. His personal polling is dire. I think with Burnham as leader Labour would have had a better chance against Reform.

Burnham would need to win the by-election (by no means a cert) then 80 MPs vote against him, a leadership contest.

All highly damaging.

ATM Reform's polling is dropping, Labour just 5pts behind them, Starmer still seen as a better PM then Farage.

Starmer would have benefitted from the last weeks drama's in Davos but now ALL forgotten, its all about Labour splits.

Well done Andy Fucking Burnham

But there will be a challenge to Starmer from within the PLP. The rumours and leaks have been floating around for weeks and will grow so much louder after the May elections. I don’t like any of them, but who do you see challenging Reform, if not Burnham? Rayner? Streeting? Phillipson?

Nadia Whittome ( sp?) on Radio 4 said backbench MP' wanted Burnham because their loyalty wasnt to the government, but the Labour Party. No, her loyalty should be to her constituents, most of who arent Labour members but who voted Labour to get a Labour government ( yes I know they mostly voted to get the Tories out but either way, they voted for a Labour manifesto for government) She has also openly revealed, as if it wasnt obvious, that they dont want Burnham as an MP and dont much care about anything apart from toppling Starmer. So they would have completely destabilised the government for months. All the other parties have to do is sit back and watch them implode and waste time on leadership elections. Im convinced Burnham ( who was a mediocre but arch Blairite minister when he was an MP) is a stalking horse for a Hard Left candidate who will stand against him and probably win, which will spell disaster for the party. They may as well roll out the red carpet for Reform.