ANDY Burnham has warned that Labour need to be “careful” not turn into a party that undermines working people following the sacking of Sam Tarry.
Keir Starmed axed the MP from the front bench for supporting rail strikers.
And commenting on the Labour leader’s decision, Mr Burnham told GB News today: “Labour needs to be careful here. We can’t ever be a party that undermines working people fighting to protect their incomes and a cost of living crisis.
“If we’re not careful, that’s how we might come over. There’s a real issue out there now for people in terms of wages and energy bills that keep rising.
“People are going to have to fight to protect their incomes and Labour should be supporting people to protect their incomes.”
Mr Burnham, the mayor of Manchester, also told GB News that he welcomed a pledge by Tory leadership candidate Liz Truss to build the Northern Powerhouse Rail scheme in full.
In an exclusive interview with Gloria De Piero on GB News, he said: “It sounds really encouraging and I really hope she means it because obviously I will work with any politician that is committed to investing in the north of England and levelling up with the South.
“If Liz means it, then that is genuinely a breakthrough and it’s good news so I hope it’s true.
“What we get though is half a line between Manchester and Leeds, Northern Powerhouse Rail, and that isn’t what we were promised by Boris Johnson when he stood in front of Stephenson’s Rocket after he became Prime Minister.
“It’s not what George Osborne promised when he first floated the idea of a Northern Powerhouse almost eight years ago in Manchester.
“We’ve been waiting a long time. The Tories have made a lot of false promises to the north of England. If Liz means it, that is clearly good news.”
Asked about the Government’s announcement last month about £9 billion of rail upgrades in the north, Mr Burnham said: “It doesn’t deliver what they promised us at the last general election.
“The Tories stood on a clear promise to build a new line across the north of England, a Crossrail for the north, if you like, and what they came back with was half a line.
“And I’m sorry, it’s just not not good enough. You can’t chop a city like Bradford completely out of the modern rail system.
“London doesn’t get treated in that way so why should we have to choose between a good North South Line and a good East West Line.
“We deserve both if we’re going to have modern infrastructure here that sets us up for the 21st century.
“I’m saying to these two leadership candidates and I’ve written to them today with the other mayors across the north to sit down with us when you win, if you win.
“Let’s talk about the plans for railways in the north of England. Stick to your manifesto, deliver what you said you would and we will support you.”
Asked about the profits posted by the big energy firms, he said: “I had to read the figures twice to actually believe that those were the numbers.
“Looking at these profits from Centrica and Shell today, I think we now need to hear from these two people who wants to be our Prime Minister what they are going to do about this on day one.
“Are they going to let households be hit with bills that could get up to £500 pounds a month? Though we’ve had some action but it’s nowhere near enough.
“I want to hear much more from them on that very issue. What are they going to do to cap these excessive profits? What are they going to do to help people afford their bills?
“What are they going to do about the crisis in the National Health Service? That’s also another issue that needs much more attention.”
