Is Andy Burnham really the candidate Reform most wants to run against in Makerfield, as Nigel Farage’s party has been heavily briefing? Not if the conduct of the newspapers that are increasingly acting as the party’s outriders is anything to go by.
Reform claims that Burnham’s pro-European views – he has previously spoken about wanting to see Britain back in the EU within his lifetime – made him the ideal opponent in a constituency which voted heavily for Brexit in 2016.
But the behaviour of the Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph – all of which would like to see a Farage victory on June 18 – would suggest they are worried, with all three running an anti-Burnham campaign bordering on the unhinged.
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On Tuesday, the Sun’s political editor Jack Elsom ran a story claiming the Greater Manchester mayor had frittered away public cash on a personal PR stunt, wrapping up a train in yellow to pose for pictures with it.
“MONEY TO BURN,” ran the headline. “Fury as wannabe PM Andy Burnham staged ‘vanity’ photo op with yellow train which cost taxpayers £35,000”.
The article claimed that emails released under Freedom of Information laws showed the man Elsom called “the veteran politician who has railed against capitalism” posed for the pics after staff at Transport for Greater Manchester asked: “What’s your thoughts on the likelihood of us getting him a yellow train to stand in front of?” “A few months later, he was pictured beaming in front of a branded carriage,” the article says.
Disclosures under Freedom of Information rules show the rebrand cost a total of £35,010, it added.
What it didn’t also add was that the pictures were to publicise plans to integrate trains into the Greater Manchester transport network. Burnham was at Manchester’s Piccadilly station to unveil the first Northern train to join the local Bee Network of buses and trams from later this year.
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The train, with the same yellow branding as the region’s Bee Network buses, heralds the first integrated public transport system outside London, with tap-in, tap-out ticketing as part of a plan to make travelling simpler and more affordable. Burnham’s public transport changes have been widely seen as a great success with metro mayors around the country seeking to replicate them. And the train is still yellow. Alas, there was no room in Elsom’s story to mention all that.
Oh, and the “fury” mentioned in the headline? There were two quotes attacking Burnham for the photo op – one from opaquely-funded Tufton Street think tank the TaxPayers’ Alliance and the other from Richard Holden, shadow transport secretary and, handily, boyfriend of Elsom’s chum and Sun colleague Kate Ferguson.
Still, if Elsom thinks £35,000 is a scandal, he must be furious about the £5 million banked by Farage from a Thailand-based crypto billionaire, a donation the Reform leader has been regularly changing his story about? Er… not really. The incurious political editor has written about it once, a week ago, for a full 262 words.
It all seems part of a huge attack on the part of the right wing papers against Burnham, who is expected to challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he triumphs in Makerfield. Elsewhere in the Sun is “RED RAGE Makerfield speaks: ‘Burnham, we’re not your stepping stone!’ voters blast as they choose Reform to fix Labour’s mess”.
In the Mail, Quentin Letts writes that “Burnham’s four-minute video is so saccharine even Walt Disney would find it sickly”, while its news team focuses on what Burnham has said about its hobby-horse issue of trans people and toilets.
But the most obsessed is the Telegraph, which over the past few days alone has run such headlines as “For the sake of Britain, Burnham must lose in Makerfield”, “Andy Burnham has betrayed Manchester”, “Burnham’s Manchester economic miracle in doubt” and “Burnham ‘failed to grasp the nettle’ on grooming gang inquiry”.
Plus there was “Why ‘fraud’ Burnham is nothing more than Starmer 2.0”, “Boring Burnham wants to seem different but comes up short”, “‘The power’s gone to Andy Burnham’s head’: What Makerfield thinks of its wannabe MP”, “Burnham’s nationalisation drive can only end one way”, “Burnham has just revealed his very expensive plans for government” and “Rejoining the sclerotic EU under Andy Burnham would cripple Britain”.
Phew! Do you think they like him?
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