Andy Burnham does not have a plan for running the country and his vision sounds similar to Boris Johnson’s levelling-up agenda “minus private enterprise” , Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has said.
She told GB News: “The reason why we are going to have a summer of chaos is because Andy Burnham doesn’t have a plan, he’s just making announcements, hasn’t thought it through, and this is one of the things that caused us problems as Conservatives.
“I’m not here to pretend the previous Conservative governments were perfect, they were not. That’s why I’ve apologised and acknowledged the mistakes and changed the policy, but Andy Burnham doesn’t seem to have learned the right lessons.
“If you do what Keir Starmer did, or what even Nigel Farage is doing, and just saying things without working out how you’re going to do them, you will run into trouble, and even his premiership won’t last very long unless he comes up with fully worked up, thought-through plans.”
On the prospect of a general election, she said: “I’m not worried at all. It’s very easy to be popular when all you are doing is spending money that the government has given you. When you have to take difficult decisions, the popularity disappears.
“Every Prime Minister has learned that being Prime Minister is not a popularity contest. It is nothing like being mayor. It is about making tough choices for the public good, tough choices like funding defence. We had a defence secretary who resigned just a few weeks ago, saying that Labour was not funding defence, that the country was unprotected, and we weren’t looking after our troops. That’s extraordinary. We can’t just ignore that.
“What’s Andy Burnham’s plan for defence? Where’s he going to get the money from? He needs to come to Parliament and explain what it is he’s going to do, rather than stay in Manchester, where he feels most comfortable, not answering anybody’s questions. He owes us at least that.
“I’m very happy to fight a general election. It’s never just about the polls at that point, it’s about the agenda you are offering the country, that’s what they vote on. The first time I came into Parliament was in 2017 and Theresa May was 20 points ahead in the polls, but people were not convinced by the agenda, and she didn’t win the big majority she was expecting. She went backwards.
“That’s why it’s all about the agenda that you’re putting forward to the country, but the reason why I say a general election should depend on a defence investment plan not being funded is because we have to focus on the problems that we have right now. I’m very worried about defence. Andy Burnham has a 160 majority. What can he not do with those people, unless he’s planning to do some horrible things, in which case I think that the public will have something to say about that. So I’m not worried about a general election at all. Bring it on.”
She said Burnham was echoing Boris Johnson’s levelling up agenda: “It basically is Boris Johnson’s levelling up, minus private enterprise, minus ownership, minus the private sector, with more taxes and less control for people, because what we’re going to see is decision-making outsourced yet again to more quangos, to regional mayors that have no scrutiny.
“Who was scrutinising Andy Burnham? He was just doing whatever he liked. There was no parliament that he could answer to. And that’s what worries me, that Andy Burnham doesn’t want to take tough decisions. He wants to be popular, so he’s going to tell the mayors to sort it out.
“Mayors cannot fund a Defence Investment Plan. We don’t have an army in Essex and the Royal Navy in Essex, which the mayor is going to sort out. He needs to get serious. Devolution is just a process. It doesn’t, in and of itself, fix any problems.
“Who are you devolving to? Are they any good? If you devolve to good people, it works. You look at the SNP, they had the benefits of devolution. It’s Scotland that has suffered. Same with Labour-run Wales, that was devolved. Look at what’s happened to the NHS in Wales. Look at what’s happened to education in Scotland.
“So devolution is not a silver bullet. You need to have a plan, and right now Andy Burnham doesn’t have a plan, it’s just vibes.”
On the Home Secretary’s proposals to tackle immigration, she said: “Well, I don’t understand the thinking behind what Shabana is doing. Labour told us that they were going to stop the boats and smash the gangs, they have not done that, and this is why they still have an asylum backlog problem that they are dealing with. Which members of the public are they going to pick? Are they people who are going to rubber stamp asylum applications? I hope not.
“We are spending billions on asylum accommodation and the whole asylum system. We need to stop the boats. We need to deport foreign criminals. People who should not be in our country need to leave, and that is what the Conservative policies are. We’re leaving the ECHR, so that we can do the things that we haven’t been able to do before in government. We tried everything except leaving the ECHR, and I think people can see that there is no other way for us to deal with this problem of illegal immigration into our country.”
Asked about his video where he took issue with the over the colour of his t-shirt, she said: “Well, he certainly had a laugh, and I think he’s a very funny guy, and I’m sure we’re going to get on, but our politics are very different.
“He’s not going to fund the defence investment plan with a tweet, so yes, Andy, I know you’re enjoying yourself right now, but things are about to get a lot tougher, and I will be waiting in Parliament for you, and I have a lot of questions. Maybe the media don’t get to ask him questions, but eventually I will.”
