Burnham’s Far-Left Turn Is ‘TERRIFYING’ — Labour Accused of Treating Capitalism as Britain’s Enemy

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Will Andy Burnham be good for Britain is today's question on Talk Breakfast. Anthony says, will he be good? He wants to take us back to the 1970s. I'm going to stockpile candles. Chris says, Mark, did I hear Andy Burnham correctly? He was talking about a ferry from Tilbury to Grey's. That never went through. It's up the road. You can get a bus or a train, a few stops. What a plank. More wasted money for the taxpayer. Well, let's take a listen now, if we can. to the incoming Prime Minister, and this is about Britain in the 1980s. [00:00:35] Andy Burnham: I am clear, Britain took a series of wrong turns in the 1980s. Political power was centralised and economic power was privatised. The country surrendered control of the essentials, housing, water, energy, transport, and left people exposed to higher costs. That, in turn, led to the concentration of more wealth and power in the hands of fewer people and fewer places. [00:01:12] Speaker 1: Well, there you go. That was Andy Burnham, who enters Downing Street on Monday. Live in the studio, Steve N. Allen, comedian and broadcaster. Good morning, Steve. [00:01:21] Steve N. Allen: Good morning. It was a pleasure to be here. [00:01:23] Speaker 1: Will Andy Burnham be good for Britain? [00:01:26] Steve N. Allen: I mean, it's not looking that way, is it? I was so hoping, because we didn't know which one we were going to get. You know the old joke about all the different people walking to a bar, all the different types of politicians, and it's all Andy Burnham? So you didn't know which one it's going to be. I have, in the past, compared him to the Kylie Minogue did it again video, where there were all the different Kylies. So you don't know whether you're going to get, like, Blair Eye Andy Burnham or some sort of far left Andy Burnham. It's looking like we're getting that one. I was so hoping. The number of times we've sat around besmirching the good name of Keir Starmer, saying, well, be careful. You never know what you're going to get. So far, all of the noises haven't been that we're heading back to some sort of centre-left sensible. These are policies that actually could be useful. They're all showboating, kind of, look how left I'm going to be. That's the vibe that we're getting. And that's terrifying. [00:02:07] Speaker 1: Isn't it amazing how many Labour leaders have not taken note of the success of Tony Blair, who won three landslide victories and was the most successful Labour leader in the history of the party? [00:02:21] Steve N. Allen: Yeah. To model success and copy the things, because the problem is, that way, it's pragmatism, isn't it? It's settling. It's what's the most reasonable thing we can do in the actual world. And that's not the way to win the argument, but not the election. Some people have this mentality of trying to say, look, I'm so devoted to the cause, I will become the extreme of my own self. I'll become obsessed with the furthest, most radical ideas. And that's just not going to play out in the real world. People forget when you have an election, not that he did, the numbers are there that show you it's not like everyone's on board. Doesn't matter who wins, the left or the right, the numbers tell you you're also bringing with you half the nation that disagrees with you. So what you could do is have something that tries to appeal to both groups, and you can be successful. Which is kind of what Tony Blair did. The little asterisk you need, the caveat is we all need to talk about Iraq, right? But if you forget that for a while, some of the things he did were really good, some of the things he did weren't. But that's what balance would be. I was never in favour of the way that tuition fees were done. But, you know, you've got to stomach it because there were some things that did go well. So, yeah, if they'd have copied Tony Blair. But he's now hated by the own party. Literally, the Tony Blair Institute is spending all of its time doing press releases saying, "Come on, Andy. Don't do it. Don't do it. Just put away, put down the leftism." And they're not listening. [00:03:34] Speaker 1: No, it's unfortunate. And I just wonder whether he may have a point that we've privatised utilities and it's not played out particularly well, especially in regard to water and other infrastructure. He can talk about growing inequality, perhaps, about the fact that power has become very centralised. No problem. But if he reverses these things, it's going to take years to feed through to the lives of ordinary people, isn't it? [00:03:59] Steve N. Allen: Yeah. And he forgets he's got two years. It's not like he won an election and has, like, a full term. It's two years. Do something to impress us. Do something that we can feel. And at the moment, we're getting the threats of movement in the other direction. Andy Burnham, one of the front pages of the Telegraph or something a few weeks ago, had the phrase, he says, "There's movement on tax." And I saw that headline and I thought, "Oh, thank heavens. He gets it. He sees what it's going to be. Let's have a read of what it is. Movement up." Darn it! How is he thinking at a time when pre-election, the highest tax burden since World War II, then we have an election and then tax somehow goes up and he comes in saying, "Don't worry, I'll find more ways to tax you." We're not worried about it. We don't want that. It's the opposite. Like, you know, people are suffering and struggling. And that's not going to be the way to keep people happy. So there's another, you know, it's only two years until the next election. You know, try and cheer us up now. [00:04:48] Speaker 1: Well, that's right. And for any Labour prime minister, growth is everything because that's how you can fund a progressive agenda. Yeah. If there's one thing we know about Labour governments, it's that they need money. That is their raison d'etre, to invest in public services, to tackle inequality. And I'm not hearing any mood music that will equate to growth from Andy Burnham. I'm hearing about a lot of constitutional reform, about moving power into the regions. Yeah. I'm hearing about nationalisation, which will be expensive and it's no guarantee that it will actually improve our infrastructure. I'm not hearing too much about business, about jobs, about inflation or about growth. [00:05:29] Steve N. Allen: Yeah. It's almost like if he says anything that is pro-business, he will be hated by his own backbenchers. And that's the worry. One of the things I was wrong about, and Mark, you know that's not often. [00:05:38] Speaker 1: We can put it on the calendar. You're always right. You have a monopoly of wisdom, Steve and Alan. Thank you. That's what I put on the business cards. [00:05:44] Steve N. Allen: You're the sage of talk. They can't stop you if you put it on your business cards. But I was definitely wrong. [00:05:48] Speaker 1: You're like a slightly taller, slightly more attractive Yoda. [00:05:51] Steve N. Allen: Thank you. There is no try, only do, is what I keep saying to myself. That's my motivation. [00:05:57] Speaker 1: You're like Yoda after a couple of weeks in Harley Street. Yes. [00:06:01] Steve N. Allen: With a bum lift. Yeah. I've had a bit of work done. Yeah. I mean, he was a benefits claimant as well. That Yoda, walking with the stick. [00:06:09] Speaker 1: Oh, he was a sharker. Horrible lefty. [00:06:11] Steve N. Allen: Never liked him. And then all of a sudden, when it all kicks off, his lightsabers go. What are you needing the stick for? [00:06:15] Speaker 1: Yoda, no. Massive Corbynite. Yeah. Pro-Palestine. I mean, I'm out of here with that guy. [00:06:21] Steve N. Allen: But the thing that I definitely got wrong. [00:06:22] Speaker 1: You'll be the next Labour leader, by the way, Yoda. [00:06:24] Steve N. Allen: I mean, we all get a go at something. [00:06:25] Speaker 1: Prime Minister, I will become. [00:06:27] Steve N. Allen: There you go. I didn't realise he was Nigerian. No, beautiful work. I was wrong because I thought, everyone's saying, look, it's a coronation. There's no contest. And I thought, avoid the contest. It'll be the worst thing. Because if anyone else stood against Andy Burnham, they'd all have to say things and promise things to win over the backbenchers, to win over the left of the party. And again, I don't hate the centre-left. I think the extreme parts of the left are the problem and the things to be avoided. I think the same is true on the right. Of course. I think that's the same is true in everything, right? But if there was going to be a contest, they'd have to make sands to win over the left. They'd make promises that I wouldn't want them to deliver on. The contest would have moved all candidates away from the centre. And I thought, thank heavens we've not done that. And yet Burnham's come in, and now he's acting like he had to do that already. He's appeasing those backbenchers. They know they don't have the gig next time. It's a one-shot, one-term thing. And maybe they want to leave a mark or something, but they're just forcing this... And it's early to be this critical. But it feels like they're forcing Andy Burnham to not live in reality, to live in the dinner parties they'll have afterwards where they can say, "Well, actually, I tried to enact this policy." Yeah, you'll win points in your dinner circles, but not in the real world. [00:07:34] Speaker 1: Is he just pretending to be left-wing to keep the troops happy and in office he'll do the right thing and therefore make you happy? Nothing makes me happy, Mark, you know that. [00:07:44] Steve N. Allen: That's a very good point. But I don't know... Look, I've never met him... [00:07:47] Speaker 1: Apart from Japanese... I'd love to know where the end of that... Adult movies. [00:07:51] Steve N. Allen: Oh, you went there? I was thinking, how is he going to avoid saying that? [00:07:54] Speaker 1: Well, I made the mistake of borrowing your laptop a couple of months ago and what I saw aged me. It's all pixelated. However... [00:08:02] Steve N. Allen: What were we talking about? No, I don't really know. [00:08:06] Speaker 1: Is there not a chance that he'll... Essentially that this is, you know, a little bit of theatre? You know, "E-I, oop, son, me old lad, I'm going to be left-wing." And then actually he makes the tough decisions and he's a good Prime Minister. [00:08:20] Steve N. Allen: I don't think we've... I think he seems too willing to change, too capricious, I suppose. That there have been so many different versions of him. I'm not sure if there is a call. And I've never met him to know. I've not met... You know, I only met Keir Starmer once bumped into him in Edinburgh. So it's not like I really had a sense of the person. But I've got no data that lets me know whether he is simply following what he thinks is the strongest current to get him to where he wants to be. I think that might be the kind of politician we're dealing with. Maybe he's really successfully hidden the sense of an inner call that is politically motivated to an ideal. I don't think... I just think he changes with the wind. [00:08:54] Speaker 1: Huey raises a great point. Good morning, gentlemen. The reason the water systems are so useless is because, once again, they were built for a population of around 50 million people and can't cope with the population explosion. Furthermore, the green policies and net zero policies have prevented any new reservoirs being created in over 30 years. Well, I remember the Lib Dem MP, Leila Moran, celebrating the fact that she'd blocked a reservoir in her constituency. Of course, in the summer, when there's no water, people like Leila Moran are saying we need more reservoirs. I do think, regarding this nationalisation project, there's no guarantee that it will improve the performance of those businesses. For example, it's little reported that before water privatisation, pipes were broken, millions of litres of water were wasted, and we had pollution in the rivers. Who knew? [00:09:48] Steve N. Allen: Well, that's true, but I do think there are some things that should have been privatised. There are some things that shouldn't. Everyone wants us to just fit it into privatisation good. Agree with that. Privatisation bad. There is no do. Only try. Right? But, phone systems, what a ridiculous thing we had. When one company were in charge of the phones, you wanted a second line putting in. I think it was a while ago. Both of us might struggle to remember. Wasn't it something like you had a three-month wait for a phone to be installed? Yes, absolutely. We never would have kept up with modern telephony. Like, you needed to privatise to get to the stage where you've got 5G, 6G systems. So, of course you needed that one done, because you could have close to a perfect competition, a competitive market. Electricity? I guess you can change your supplier. You don't really know where the electrons come from. So, not that the electrons actually... They simply carry the Maxwell field. They only drift. So, you don't get the electrons from the supplier. I think we all know that. But water... [00:10:40] Speaker 1: I mean, it's the usual kind of down-the-pub chat, isn't it? Yeah, Maxwell's equations. I mean, can I tell you that this electron chat that you've just been indulging in, that is what won the heart of Mrs Dolan on our first date. [00:10:52] Steve N. Allen: She likes a bit of slow drift, does she? She plugged me in that night. I hope you've pixelated the video when you sent it to Japan. But the idea of water, you don't get a choice. It's a full-on monopoly. They've got you. Because I tell you what happens as a human, you get thirsty. It's all very well thinking, you know what, I'll prove them wrong. At some point, you're going to need their water. And they can fully rip you off, charge away too many, pay the dividends... For sure. So that is a system that I can understand the nation can be... [00:11:19] Speaker 1: It's wrong in principle, but to nationalise is expensive and not a magic wand. Yes. And I think what'll happen is we'll do it, and it'll be the right thing to do. But will it change lives? I doubt it. [00:11:30] Steve N. Allen: No, it will simply stop the rot. So maybe at some point, we could start to fix the pipes. We won't fill the benefit for a long while. And the benefit will simply be a slightly later hose pipe ban. But that situation is wrong. That shouldn't have happened. Whereas loads of other privatisations should. It's not difficult to hold those two things in here. [00:11:45] Speaker 1: Well, you've got skin in the game because of that enormous fountain in your garden, of course. Oh, yeah. [00:11:49] Steve N. Allen: I do like... I've got a hose pipe. Yep. Every so often, I just like to nip into the back garden and recreate the intro to friends. Is that that wrong, Mark? [00:11:56] Speaker 1: It's not bad. And I hear you've diverted the river ox just to get enough water supply through your rear garden. Yeah. And that essentially you're chewing through more water than the whole city of Las Vegas. But good luck to you. I look hydrated, though. Of course you do. Before the break, a quick one. Are you inclined to feel sorry for Keir Starmer this morning as he contemplates his legacy and packs his bags? [00:12:19] Steve N. Allen: No, because he was the one who made the mistakes. He, if anything, I think could have been closer to that centre and could have done the practical, pragmatic thing. But here's what I think his big problem was. It was arrogance. It was... I'm the Mac Daddy. I've just won this massive majority. Look at the Sozma majority. Oof. But therefore... Back to the Japanese adult movies, aren't we? [00:12:39] Speaker 1: I've never seen one, Mark. I don't know why you keep talking about it. There's one called Mr. Hirohito, and it's very, very good. Basically, the sauna isn't working, which is a big issue in Tokyo. Privatisation. Yeah. And there's about... There's a large number of ladies in the sauna waiting for it to heat up. As you would. Anyway, he gets his spanner out. But go on. [00:12:57] Steve N. Allen: The... No, I do like the idea of people who can repair things. [00:12:59] Speaker 1: It's a compelling storyline. It's like one of the best. I stayed right for the end. That's right. But... [00:13:05] Steve N. Allen: Yeah, the arrogance of like, oh, we're so right. We don't even need to convince the nation. That was the problem. We're right. You, the nation, are wrong. No, you work for us. They should have worked better on comms to try and... Even the things that weren't popular, explain to us why they're not popular. [00:13:20] Speaker 1: But wait a minute. This is democracy, isn't it? Wasn't it Keir Starmer's to mess up? And isn't it his right to be terrible for five years and do a bad job? Is that not what democracy looks like? And you either prevail or fail based upon your efforts. Why wasn't he given that crack of the whip? [00:13:38] Steve N. Allen: No, well, he was, wasn't he? He was given the crack of the whip. [00:13:40] Speaker 1: No, he wasn't because he was given two years. [00:13:42] Steve N. Allen: Yeah, because that's how successfully he managed to fail. [00:13:44] Speaker 1: But that's not how a democracy works. We choose a party and a party leader and they get five years and it's good, bad or indifferent. You know the drill, though. And I wouldn't mind going... Was it old-fashioned of me to go back to that? Where you choose someone and they get five years. Well, I mean, you know the drill. We can but dream, can't we? [00:14:01] Steve N. Allen: We live in this two-state world of saying, like, it's not a presidential system, but by words, it's a presidential system. Exactly. But whenever you need it to not be, it's not. My theory, by the way, I can solve that for you. You have a law that means as soon as you swap prime minister, you have to have a general election, which means no party would swap prime ministers. [00:14:17] Speaker 1: Mr. Hirohito is heavily dubbed and available on Netflix. It's not one for the kids. Do check it out. I'm delighted to say that live in the studio is the movie expert, the brilliant Steve N. Allen. And, oh boy, have we got a big story for you next. Big Ange is back. 6:38. Steve Burnham wants to go back to the 1970s. Great, says Stu in the Cotswolds. So, there will only be a handful of migrants in each town and city. Mass deportations per chance. Stu, thank you for that. What about John in North Yorkshire? Good morning, Mark, and hello, Steve. It seems like I'll have to dig out my old Ford Cortina and my disco gear. I don't think my weary old bones can deal with all the dancing. I don't know about the locomotion. I think it will be do the rigor mortis. John, a beautiful message. Thank you for that. Keep them coming. Will Andy Burnham be good for Britain? 03444991000. Give us a call. We'll put you on air before 7:00 a.m. Live in the studio, Steve N. Allen, comedian and broadcaster. Steve, let's take another listen to the Prime Minister, this time on taking the party back to its roots. [00:15:31] Andy Burnham: As your leader, I will set a direction that is distinctively Labour. We won't try to out-green the Greens or out-reform reform or doing what we've done in the past of wearing too many Tory clothes. Let me tell you, I'm quite happy that Kemi doesn't approve of my wardrobe choices because I'm not keen on theirs either. From here, we do it differently. [00:16:05] Speaker 1: Well, there you go. No policy, just vibes. Steve, as a professional performer yourself, what did you make of his delivery, Andy Burnham's, in that speech? [00:16:15] Steve N. Allen: Do you know what? I'm not going to criticise the delivery. It's a refreshing change because what we've had is Keir Starmer, who's had no sense of being a human until he resigned. And then since then, he's come out of his shell a bit. That was quite nice. A few little jokes. Oh, he's human after all. There must be something about... I think all of his brain run time was spent on not losing the job. Yeah. When he eventually went, well, I'm out of here. He just kind of cheered up. If he'd have done that all along, maybe we would have liked him more. So the delivery's better. The delivery's actually quite good. I just don't like, when you say vibes, I don't like the vibes of, we don't need to cast capitalism as the problem because we live in a capitalist society. I want a prime minister who's good at capitalism. And I don't mean rampant, free market, absolutely no restrictions, but someone who understands the world in which you live. The world that you're the prime minister in is a capitalist country with some socialism mixed in. And again, everyone wants to break it down. Socialism bad or capitalism bad. Well, we've got a perfect, we're trying to get the mixture right. Pensions. Helping war veterans is technically socialism. Everyone wants a bit of socialism mixed in, of course you do. Correct. But you don't want a situation where you don't have any capitalism, otherwise you don't have an economy to fund all of the things. So I didn't like the vibes. The performance was good, but it feels like it's signalling like, oh, don't worry, I don't like capitalism either. [00:17:26] Speaker 1: Well, then you're in the wrong job. Is it not a challenge also to repudiate the 1980s given the fact that that was a decade of social mobility and economic growth? [00:17:38] Steve N. Allen: Yeah, it's a mixture, isn't it? I think he's right about some of the privatisations. I think if you cast the 80s as all wrong, you miss so much of the economic recovery from the 70s to the 80s. The fact that by the end of the 80s, the go-to reference of that era was kind of like yuppies on their phones. Right. Someone had made some money. The amount of money that was being spent on some drugs back in the day, you know what I mean? So someone was doing all right. I think it did lead to regional economic differences. So I grew up in the Midlands, Mansfield, so like a former mining town. So I got that vibe of we felt we'd been hard done by. And I suppose it is true Germany managed to close its minds without impacting communities as much as what happened here. Whether that's all Thatcher's fault or a mixture of how hardline the unions were trying to be and how hardline Thatcher was trying to be. So look, I think there's an argument there. And it feels like, or it felt to us, the right to buy eventually helped people in the south-east way more. Like if you bought a council house back then, you're minted. You bought a council house in some areas of the north-east, well done, you've got a shed, do you know what I mean? So maybe he's trying to look... [00:18:38] Speaker 1: But it was still yours, which was therefore a different mentality, wasn't it? Yeah. And Mrs Thatcher eradicated the class system, really, and the idea of being working class disappeared over that decade. Well, people didn't know their place anymore. And part of that, the psychology was owning the roof over your own head changed your relationship with the economy. [00:19:00] Steve N. Allen: Well, I've always thought one of the cleverest things she did was that. Because if you own a house, all of a sudden... It's oversimplified to say you become more right-wing. But you get a bit more practical. You own it, you've got a stake in the land, then all of a sudden you become less wishy-washy in the... Or maybe you just get older in your teenage views of kind of like, "Oh, maybe we should just help the world and we should be peace everywhere." That's the view you have as a student. Well, you have a stake in the economy. You do have skin in the game. Yeah. Yeah. And that makes you, again, practical. Pragmatism. It's my thing. That's what I think is the success of a nation. But I think that the difference, even if you just look at it on the house prices, I can understand why some people in the North feel that the South has had a better time of it, just by how wealthy people are technically on paper. [00:19:42] Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think that's a fair point. Let's take a voice note if we can. And this is Eugenie in Bexhill. [00:19:48] Speaker 4: Good morning, Mark. Super show, as always. Eugenie from Bexhill-on-Sea. Andy Vermin -- I mean, Andy Burnham. We deserve better. The nation deserves better. He is a fake. He's incompetent. And he'll just change his mind with the wind. And he hasn't got a grasp of what the nation wants and what we're feeling. So, no, in answer to your question, he won't be good for anything. And he won't be good at anything. It's a shame. As I say, the nation deserves better. [00:20:27] Speaker 1: Eugenie, thank you for that rather depressing but very well-articulated voice note. You're a star. Do join us again soon, Eugenie, if you can. We love the voice notes. What do you think? Will Andy Burnham be good for Britain? Good morning, Mr Dolan, says Nick in London. What do you call a country where some deluded, power-crazed bloke seizes power? It is a flipping dictatorship. How do you get rid of a dictator? Discuss. And I do think that's an issue for Labour, that Andy Burnham has been parachuted in without a mandate. History would suggest, Steve, that the public will have their say at the next election. They don't like having prime ministers foisted upon them. We saw that with the Tories. Yeah, exactly. [00:21:15] Steve N. Allen: And honestly, I do think the solution would be to admit that we are a bit more presidential. There must be a massive difference between having one prime minister and the next. So the argument is, you don't need a general election, you vote for your local representative, you vote for the party. Well, if there were no difference between having one PM and the next, why would they bother changing who the prime minister is? Think about the massive step change between having Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak, all such different regimes. [00:21:44] Speaker 1: Yes. [00:21:45] Steve N. Allen: So I think that proves that a different prime minister means a very different government. So you should go to the people and ask. I do think the knock-on effect would be, if a party knows it will have to face a general election by swapping prime minister, it wouldn't swap prime ministers. But at least this problem goes away a little bit there. And sure, you might end up with some really dodgy crackpot prime minister, but you just excuse that with a little bit of voter beware. We voted for it in the first place. You have to, you know, take your punishment. [00:22:09] Speaker 1: Now, I've got some good news for you. It's not that I've purchased a Blu-ray copy of Mr. Hirohito. Very blue. Without the subtitles. Oh. Angela Rayna. [00:22:18] Steve N. Allen: You speak Japanese? A little bit. You've learnt the basics. [00:22:22] Speaker 1: I've worn out that VHS, I'm not going to lie. Big Ange is back. Oh, yeah. Angela Rayna is being lined up as the health secretary, the mojito-loving, vape-chomping, former deputy prime minister, is being lined up as Andy Burnham's health secretary to push through radical social care reforms. Well, it will be the mother of all comebacks, won't it? Yeah. [00:22:45] Steve N. Allen: I mean, look, I don't necessarily love people who vape or whatever. We can't have a go-to for that. We remember Therese Coffey, who managed to drink more than absolutely everyone. [00:22:52] Speaker 1: "Wake up and smell the coffee" was the campaign slogan. Yeah. [00:22:55] Steve N. Allen: I mean, she was living the high life there. Could be misconstrued. It's a family show behaviour. You could... Oh, dearie me. We've all had a drink. We've all had a drink. That's a mental image I didn't need. Yes, look, I just think this is a bad idea. Because... Well, it was the only reason... I think West Streeting was actually making a bit of movement in the right direction. I didn't like the way he negotiated the end of the strikes, but it seems some of the basic ways he was operating was, let's look at a hospital that's doing something right. Try and model it, see if we can replicate that across the system. It's a small step, but it was doing the right thing. [00:23:28] Speaker 1: I think he and Shibana Mahmood are the more talented of the Cabinet members, aren't they? Yeah. And what's good about him is he's not worried about sacred cows. Yeah. And he's been willing to criticise the NHS, the culture of it, how it's run, and he's tried to do the right thing. Yeah. And he's going to be off-ski. I mean, I'm not sure what West Streeting's going to get, but I think it may be a demotion from the health department. [00:23:52] Steve N. Allen: Yeah. Such a shame, because now is the time to try and be changing things. The way it's all been written about in the newspapers, radical change to the care system, right? Great, I agree with those words, but do we know the direction? In the same way that we talked about Andy Burnham saying there's movement on tax. Great, but do we know the direction? Because if we're going to radical, radically change the NHS, make it more efficient, change the way some of the sections do things, that's exactly what we need. I just think where we are right now with Ange in charge, the motion of travel is going to be in the wrong direction. It's going to be, let's see if we can spend a couple more billion on this. And that's not what we need. We don't need to be spending more. We need to be spending it efficiently, because that saves people's lives. [00:24:33] Speaker 1: Coming up, Nigel Farage reacts to Andy Burnham's first speech, but first here is Rob on a voice note. Morning, Mark. [00:24:42] Speaker 5: Rob, on my way to work. Listen to you talking about Burnham. He wants to take the country back to the 70s. Does that mean we're going to have three-day weeks? Piles of bodies. 15% interest. Going to the IMF to bail us out, because we're going bust. Unions running the job. Power outages. All the good things that Labour brought us. Cheers. Nigel Farage has reacted to Andy Burnham's first speech as leader of the Labour Party. [00:25:08] Speaker 1: And this was a speech made at the CPAC Conservative Conference yesterday. Take a listen. [00:25:16] Speaker 6: But I'm doing this not because I want rank, title or position. I'm doing this because I fear this great country that we love. I can see this country. We are going down the drain. Britain is broken. We have to wake up to that fact, acknowledge the extent of the illness. And until we do that, we'll never be able to put the right cures in place. I am doing this because I believe in Britain. I'm doing this because I believe we can turn this around and get this country back on the right track. [00:25:54] Speaker 1: Will Andy Burnham be good for Britain? Barry is in Norwich. Barry, good morning. Good morning, Mark. How are you? Very well. Happy Saturday. How are things with you, man? [00:26:05] Speaker 7: Oh, not too bad. I'm just watching this Andy Burnham. Yeah. And I don't like what I see, to be honest with you. I don't like a person who wasn't even an MP. And to which, I mean, suddenly being parachuted into a safe seat, then being made the Labour leader and then being made prime minister without any public having any say. And I think they must have a general election. The people of this country cannot have that behaviour from the government. Yeah. It's just dictatorial, if you like. Yeah. You know, it's something that would happen in China or Moscow or North Korea or, you know. [00:26:49] Speaker 1: I know. Especially without even a leadership election, just a coronation, Barry. That said, can I ask you, let's imagine reform win the next general election and two years in, Nigel Farage decides to hand over to Zia Youssef. Would you want an election then as well? Yeah. [00:27:08] Speaker 7: Yeah, I do. Yeah. I'm a firm believer, right, that if a party changes prime minister in any particular, when they're in power. Yeah. They must have a general election. They must be given a mandate from the people. He has got no mandate, Andy Burnham. He reckoned he's going to stay to the broken stuff that Starman was already wedded to. Yeah, right. He's not going to stop the illegal immigration. He's not going to sort out the benefits bill. He's not going to do anything that is going to possibly even start to put this country on the right footing. Yeah. And, you know, like you said, I would love to go back to the 80s. I'll be at school for one. But like, you know, we need a leader in this country. I don't want someone like Starman who wants to be friends of anyone. I want a leader, yeah, who's going to put this country first. [00:28:10] Speaker 1: Which is what we had with Mrs Thatcher, who was quite happy to be unpopular, Barry. [00:28:15] Speaker 7: Yeah. And that in my world, that is the last time this country had a leader. Yeah. I guarantee you that if that lady was in power today, then boats would not be coming across the channel. No chance. The benefits bill would be more manageable. Yeah. And this country would be on a, we'd have a strong Navy, a strong military, a strong police force and strong borders. Yeah. This country is just going down the toilet and no one's prepared to, you know, rescue it. It's just really sad to watch what's going on. Yeah. [00:28:57] Speaker 1: Well, it's very interesting. What do you make of what Barry has had to say, Stephen Allen? [00:29:01] Steve N. Allen: I think he talks a lot of sense because some of it agreed with me. No, I think we do have to address the fact that, yeah, we should go and ask the public. Because if you're going to change Prime Minister or manifesto, a government should have to go back and ask again. I'm glad he says. He's not doing the partisan thing of saying, it's because the left are doing it right now. I want it. I wouldn't want it under reform. That's the reason we are stuck in this situation. It's because everyone who was tweeting when Rishi Sunak managed to get the job without asking the public. Yeah. I mean, even Liz Truss, everyone says that she had the vote of the Conservative members. That's not a representative sample. [00:29:35] Speaker 1: It is not. 60,000 people. [00:29:37] Steve N. Allen: Of the most Conservatives, Conservatives. Well, that's not how you should do it. You shouldn't do the Rishi Sunak way. So, there should have been a general election then. There should have been one with Rishi. And there should be one now. And I'm willing to see it from all sides. Because we all would benefit of going back and asking the nation. And as I say, it means there'd be fewer swaps. But I think it just would be a better system. [00:29:55] Speaker 1: Barry, just briefly, if you can. Do we need to give Andy Burnham the benefit of the doubt? Should we give him a fair crack of the whip, Barry? [00:30:04] Speaker 7: After a general election, yeah. [00:30:06] Speaker 1: Well put. Barry, top man. What a brilliant call. Have an excellent Saturday. We will speak soon. We always love having Baza on the show. Here's a voice note from Peter. [00:30:17] Speaker 8: Hey, Mark. Andy Vermin. Well, that speech. Ho, ho, ho. Look at us. We're better than the Tories. That's the usual rubbish they come out with to try and get their followers all fired up, don't they? But at the end of it all, Labour. It's always somebody else's fault with Labour. Always has been. Always will be. But then again, how can people keep blaming other people for their own mistakes? Andy Burnham. Andy Vermin. Whatever you're going to be called in the future. But it's probably going to be worse than that. You won't last 10 minutes because people will see through you straight away. It was bad enough under Keir Starling, but under Andy Vermin, it's going to be 10 times worse. Anyway, have a nice day and don't grow that beard too long. [00:30:59] Speaker 1: Well, Peter, what a powerful voice note. Can I say that you are a master of language and your vocabulary is exemplary. That was fantastic. [00:31:29] Speaker ?: Thank you.