Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on July 20, almost 10 weeks ago. Yet he’s only actually done the job of Prime Minister for two weeks. The two weeks when he was in Parliament, actually governing the country, facing me in the House of Commons and being properly scrutinised by MPs.
In those two weeks, he nodded towards another Scottish independence vote, committed to massive spending increases his office later backed out of, and was finally honest that he believes spending on benefits is more important than spending on defence.
They were a bad two weeks.
The rest of the time, Burnham and his Government have been strangely absent.
Important decisions have been deferred, ministers have been barely visible. “Wait for Labour conference,” we’re told. “Wait for the Budget.” Wait… to discover what this Government actually believes.
The truth is, as I warned when he was whisked into 10 Downing Street a few weeks after winning a by-election, Andy Burnham has no idea what he’s doing.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member