Robert Jenrick has accused Andy Burnham of abusing the trust of the residents of Makerfield, saying a Parliamentary seat is not something “to be traded”.
Speaking on GB News, Jenrick said: “Lee Anderson, who’s our new chairman, said today that it’s not going to be a carpetbagger, in his words, it’s going to be a local person. It’s going to be somebody with deep local roots in the community.
“And what a contrast that will be to Andy Burnham, who is basically just using this community for his own ends. He could have stood anywhere. This seat came up because the Labour MP, who had only been there for two years, got disgraced, quit, ditched the seat, tried to stitch it up for Andy Burnham.
“Andy basically just wants this as a stepping stone to become Prime Minister. At Reform we want to choose somebody who’s going to be a genuine local champion for this community.
“From what we’ve read, he was trying to get someone in Bootle to step down, he was trying to get somebody in the centre of Manchester to step down. It’s pretty obvious what’s going on here.
“He’s taking these people for granted, using them as pawns in his own political career. He just wants to get into parliament as quickly as possible, so he can try and become Prime Minister.
“That’s not the way you treat people. A parliamentary seat isn’t just something to be traded like that, it’s about trust with the local people.
“We want to get Labour out, you know. The only good Labour is no Labour, so we want to use this election not just to finish off Keir Starmer – we’ve done that – but we want to finish off Labour and ensure that we can finally head towards a general election.
“But if you ask me, what does Andy Burnham think about the EU, well, I don’t really know, is the honest answer. He’s had views across the whole political spectrum. It’s basically what suits my purposes today.
“I did [vote remain] but I’m not going around, you know, changing views all the time. What he’s doing is saying one thing, just a few months ago at the Labour Party conference to please the Labour Party members, and now, less than a year later, he’s saying something very different, because he knows people in Makerfield don’t like it.
“And the point is here what is the consequence of getting closer to the EU or even rejoining it? It’s opening our borders to half a billion people, and how does that serve the people of Makerfield? How’s that going to help them to get housing or get their kids onto the social housing list? How’s it going to help them to get doctors and dentists or to have the wages that they deserve if it’s going to be undercut by cheap foreign labour once again, as it’s been for 25 years.
“No one wants that in Makerfield. They don’t want to re-litigate the Brexit wars. They actually want to just get on and have good jobs lower their bills get rid of the crime the hollowed-out town centres in places like Wigan. That is what they want, and the way to deliver that is through Reform.
“[Andy Burnham] is a human version of Keir Starmer but does that mean he’s change? This is a man, remember, who left Cambridge University – nothing wrong with that – came down to London and worked his whole career from 21 to 45 in Westminster.
“He was a researcher, he was a special adviser. He’s then parachuted into a safe seat by the Labour Party, worked as a minister. He’s not change. Why is it going to be real change if you end up with Andy Burnham as your MP or indeed as our Prime Minister?
“Real change is having a complete change of scene where you get someone like Nigel Farage in, who’s only actually shakes things up and deliver for people in Makerfield.
“I do remember when he was in Westminster, and he had a reputation as somebody who blew in the wind, wasn’t a great minister. Remember when he was Health Secretary? He was involved in privatising the NHS, PFI, which we’re going to be paying for years to come, and he was the guy who blocked the public inquiry into the Mid Staffs Hospital scandal that eventually got pushed through by the government that came afterwards.
“So I’m sceptical of Andy Burnham, but the point is this: he’s just using the people of Makerfield, he’s taking them for granted. And I think that they should use
their vote to upset the apple cart.
“Reform did incredibly well. In Makerfield, they got more than 50% of the vote, and since those times in the last fortnight, all the polls show reform doing even better. So parts of the media, the Labour Party, can throw whatever they like at Reform. They’re obviously going to in the months and the years ahead, but it’s water off the duck’s back to us.
“[The Conservatives and Restore] could do what they like, and honestly, it’s irrelevant. When we had the by-election down the road in Gorton and Denton, the Tory party lost their deposit at the local elections, they were nowhere.
“My view, and said with a heavy heart, is the Tory party is irrelevant in most of the country. They’re a regional pressure group now for posh parts of London. It’s Kensington and Wandsworth, it’s not Newark and Wigan.
“And so what they do in this by-election isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference. And I’d also say that yes, Reform are getting a healthy number of former Tory voters, but in Makerfield, actually, it’s a lot of lifelong Labour voters who are coming over to Reform.
“And it’s that bringing together of people from the left and the right who voted for other parties their whole lives, maybe for generations, that is what is so unique about Reform.”