Good morning, and welcome to coverage of the Labour party conference. Or the Hope Again conference, as it is being billed here in Liverpool. As a good Catholic, Andy Burnham (probably) believes in the resurrection and, since he has become prime minister, his party has certainly staged a miraculous recovery.
When it met in this city a year ago (at a conference which ended with Burnham’s leadership ambitions becoming the subject of mild mockery from the Starmerites, and much of the media), Labour was about 10 points behind Reform UK and Nigel Farage seemed on course to become prime minister. That is not true any more. On Thursday two MRP polls showed that, with Burnham as Labour leader, Reform UK has suffered a huge setback.
More in Common has another out this morning. That is what the next four days may (or may not) clarify. Burnham has given an interview to the Guardian’s political editor, Pippa Crerar, and he told her that he wants to show the public that he is willing to take “difficult but real decisions”.
Burnham said: I think the public want to see, number one, honesty about things. So not spin or putting things a certain way that’s self-serving. They want honesty, and then they want, I think, difficult but real decisions.
Not difficult decisions and making a fetish out of that, but actually grasping nettles and then moving things forward. I don’t think politics has been prepared to do that enough in recent times. Burnham said he would show that he was willing to take these decisions.
Always in politics, there are things that you can do. The question is sometimes: Are you prepared to do them? Yeah, I am prepared to do them.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
