Looking grim up North for Starmer
ANDY Burnham’s bid to stand as a Labour MP is a genuine threat to the long-term future of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Mr Burnham is prepared to put aside one of Britain’s plum political jobs.
As Manchester mayor he has his own personal fiefdom, a £250million budget and a platform to heckle the Government.
So he would be giving up plenty.
It is impossible to believe the so-called King of the North would be content with his lot as a backbencher representing part of the city he currently lords it over.
No. This is a naked attempt to topple a sitting Prime Minister and Labour leader.
Mr Burnham expects us to believe that he “would be there to support the work of the Government, not undermine it”.
His cocksure claim that this was “the moment” to return to Westminster was backed by fellow Northerner and self-styled Red Queen Angela Rayner.
He was also supported by London mayor Sadiq Khan, who should surely be devoting his every waking hour to halting London’s descent as a global city.
Mr Burnham asserted that “nobody expected a by-election at this time”.
Yet it was two weeks ago that we revealed the Westminster tea-room deal that led to the Gorton and Denton seat becoming vacant.
Since then Mr Burnham has maintained a monk-like silence.
His application to be a candidate could still be blocked by Labour’s National Executive Committee today.
But either way Sir Keir must now confront the spectre of ambitious Leftie Manchester MPs attempting to destabilise him.
The PM is about to learn that with friends in the North like Burnham and Rayner, he has no need of enemies.
A police revolution
BRITAIN’S ailing police network is ripe to have its collar felt by Shabana Mahmood.
The Home Secretary is right to say our lumbering model of county forces is not fit for the modern age.
Ms Mahmood describes the formation of a new nationwide National Police Service as a key part of the largest police reforms in 200 years — the days of Sir Robert Peel.
Combining the talents of the National Crime Agency, counter-terror policing and regional crime units has to be a step in the right direction.
But this has to be backed by carefully targeted investment.
The Tories promised 20,000 new bobbies by 2023.
And look where we ended up.
But this is still a big, bold vision to tackle crime in the 21st Century.
If these reforms work, they could finally make us feel safer to walk the streets.
