Labour leadership hustings - Webchat with Andy Burnham, Thursday 30 July, 2pm

[BojanaMumsnet]

Hello

We’re pleased to announce the final webchat in our Labour leadership hustings series. Andy Burnham will be joining us for a webchat on Thursday 30 July at 2pm.

Andy was elected MP for Leigh in 2001. In Government, he was Secretary of State for Health, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He was also Shadow Health Secretary under Ed Miliband’s leadership (and in that role ).

During the heated leadership campaign, Andy has warned that Labour is becoming 'frightened by its own shadow' and has had to fight back against allegations of sexism, due to a row about remarks made by one of his supporters.

Please do join us on Thursday at 2pm if you can, or post a question for Andy here in advance if you can’t.

Labour leadership voting is open until Thursday 10 September and the ballot results will be released on Saturday 12 September.

Thanks

MNHQ

You did ask a really good question, BeckerLleytonnever. I'm sorry it didn't get answered. I totally agree with you about the biscuit questions - I wish people wouldn't do that.

Becker, may i suggest green?

(And yes, yours was a good question)

I agree they seem to have all selected the same type of question and ignored the same type of question.

I think that tells you quite a lot about them in fact.

There was also absolutely ZERO chat.

It isn't a webchat imo if there is no dialogue. If they are just going to answer questions with no interaction then they could answer many more but offline.

Thank you.

I hope I didnt sound selfish, as other questions weren't answered either, but Im sick and tired of so much disability discrimination and being ignored (ALL disabled and carers) all the time by the very people that should be helping.

Ill look into the Greens policies, thank you. .

Im just really upset, not just for me and DC but for all the vulnerable and disabled who feel smaller and smaller as the days go by with all this.

There have been only a few politicians who have actually CHATTED recently - Natalie Bennett being one - and tbh I am pretty disappointed.

Becker I completely agree with you.

Becker I think the questions about disability are important and I'm sorry yours didn't get answered.

But as others have said, I think it's significant in itself. You can draw conclusions from what doesn't get answered as well as what does.

And I agree that the answers to the biscuit question can be illuminating sometimes. You can sort of tell who's agonised over their answers.

I think sneering at parents of vaccine-damaged girls is utterly despicable. Those of you who have done it should be ashamed. Utterly, utterly despicable.

Who has done that, didyouwrite? I have looked through the webchat and have only found posts by people who are new to MN asking whether it can be considered.

"its amazing how i became very ill from teenage years (leading to severe disability), with a cause not being diagnosed until my very late twenties. Yet without being young enough for the evil hpv vaccine. Weird, eh. But then i had the mmr, so i guess that is to blame for my asd?"

"Oo, i have pots too. Someone must have hpv jabbed me in my sleep, perhaps?"

As I said, utterly, utterly, utterly despicable. As is playing some kind of ridiculous disability top trumps.

www.autism.org.uk/socialskills I understand the poster that upset you has declared they have ASD. The linked article may be of interest to you.

Sorry, I didn't see those posts. I agree, they are horrible.

Both posts were me. I explained the thought-process behind my viewpoint and do not regret what i said.

As we're quoting...
Me at 10.24

"Its just that some people arent as 'well' as others. Its shit, but blaming vaccines etc is imo a form of disabilism. "Well my daughter isn't like those people, she couldnt possibly be Just Ill" "

Well he hasn't said what he's going to do about financial abuse by non-resident parents, just said there should be a review.

There was a review under the coalition and they brought in the £100 charge for the parent who was being financially abused.

Does he mean that sort of review?

A masterclass of political avoidance - especially the Calais migrants question.

And it's a bit bloody scary that the shadow health secretary doesn't know the flippin' basics of how to increase organ donation rates.

I'm sorry I missed this thread, though it's a pity that there wasn't more interaction, as others have said.

True story - Andy is on my list of Politicians I Have BF In Front Of. He was by far the most considerate

I have read back through every response he gave. Not one, not even one, answered in any depth the question asked.

Shallow, glib politico-speak. No substance.

It's not the place for any in-depth answer, though. He's here for an hour, he was obviously either a slow typist or someone was checking what he wrote before it was posted. He had tons of questions, mostly on different topics. We're not going to get an essay on each, are we?

Someone commented that his response r.e. the coup was odd. Anyone with access to the internet knows there are massive rumours about it - he could at least have said: "there are rumours, they are unsubstantiated", but denying he's heard of it at all seems like a very obvious mis-truth.

It's true that he's only got an hour,but let's face it, he had plenty of time before the hour, to gem up.

He didn't bother because we're just a bunch of mummies so he doesn't have to take what we say seriously.

It's incredible how widespread the assumption is, that mothers are idiots. Reddit thread assuming we're morons

@ilovesooty

Ah well. I'm still no wiser on Andy's stance on equality and lgbt ivf issues. I can only continue to assume his Catholicism contributed to his voting record.

Hi there - this is Harriet from Andy's campaign team. I've noticed a few questions that Andy didn't get a chance to answer on topics he's spoken about recently, so Mumsnet has kindly given me his login details. I'm not going to put words in his mouth but I'll just point you to relevant material online. On LGBT issues, you might be interested in his recent interview with Pink News: www.pinknews.co.uk/2015/06/25/interview-andy-burnham-addresses-hurtful-attacks-on-his-equality-record/ and his policy on automatic pardons: www.theguardian.com/law/2015/jul/17/andy-burnham-men-convicted-gay-automatic-pardons-labour.

@BeckerLleytonnever

Hello. Im going to ask you the same question I asked Jeremy Corbyn and Kendall and didnt get an answer to:

I want to know what Labour will do to help the disabled and their full time carers (who ''earn'' a pittance on carers allowance yet look after disabled 24/7).

For starters taking off the spare room tax for disabled as ''spare'' room is for medical equipment and the like.

And disabled and carers have high living costs as most are NOT helped by the so called services out there.

By all means sort out the wheat from the chaff regarding benefit scroungers from the genuine needy, especially the severely disabled (mentally and physically) and theior full time carers, lifelong carers

And I seriously hope so much the ''biscuit'' question is ignored as this is supposed to be a serious question thread!

Issues are more important than ''heat magazine'' questions!

Hi Becker, Harriet here. Andy was quoted in an article recently about his views on disability rights, and I thought you might be interested in what he had to say:

Burnham said: “I strongly support disability rights and object to any depiction of disabled people as ‘scroungers’. That kind of stigmatising language is wrong and should be challenged.

“I have said that some people have had a perception that Labour was about helping people who could work to live a life on benefits instead.

“I want to challenge that perception – but I also want to make sure that we do all we can to help those who can work into work.”

And he said that cuts to disability benefits “should be a red line for our party”.

He said: “That’s why I’ve come out against the cruel abolition of the Independent Living Fund. My basic principle is that we cannot justify cuts to income that cannot be replaced by work.”

Burnham said he had “concerns” about the use of benefit sanctions.

He added: “I’m not convinced that the sanctions regime operates fairly or consistently, and the government has ignored repeated calls for an independent review of the way in which they operate.

“There do not currently seem to be proper safeguards for vulnerable people, and some of the decisions made have been indefensible.”

He said he was “proud” of the last Labour government’s record on disability rights, increasing support for disabled people “so that those who couldn’t work and their children were pulled out of poverty, but we also increased the employment rate for disabled people by improving the support available to those who could work.

“However, in the last parliament, we didn’t do enough to defend disabled people from a range of damaging Tory policies, and under my leadership Labour will be a stronger voice for disabled people.”