Andy Burnham is turning into a figure of fun. This is only the beginning. By Harvey Jones 11:17, Fri, Jun 12, 2026 Updated: 11:17, Fri, Jun 12, 2026
Andy Burnham keeps making stupid promises then having to reverse them. The King of the North presents himself as an exciting upgrade on Sir Keir Starmer. If that's his strategy, the obvious move is to look as different from our flip-flopping PM as humanly possible. Instead, he's delivering exactly the same pratfalls, blunders and gaffes. He's turned himself into a Keir Starmer tribute act, slipping on exactly the same banana skins, again and again. And his latest U-turn is the most humiliating of all, because it was entirely foreseeable.
Burnham's first big howler was to sound tough by standing up to the bond market, then show himself to be a seven-stone weakling by instantly backing down. Since then we've seen more flip-flops than a Benidorm beach, on everything from single-sex toilets to Brexit, immigration, tax and even whether he'd abandon Manchester for Westminster. He's even U-turned on his choice of jogging shorts. The King of the North is now widely mocked as King of the U-turn.
But the latest reversal is beyond stupid, because it mirrors exactly the same political trap Keir Starmer fell into before the election. Just like Starmer, Burnham has tossed out a promise that he was never going to be in a position to act upon. And now he's had to retract it. This latest pratfall isn't funny. It's just sad.
Burnham opened his big mouth and backed compensation for Waspi women. They're the 3.5 million women born in the 1950s hit by moves to lift their state pension age from 60 to 65. They say they weren't given sufficient warning, and have been campaigning for compensation ever since. Burnham said if he was made PM, he would pay Waspis billions of pounds in compensation, pledging to 'stick by' them. Laughably, he said he felt 'uncomfortable' that some politicians threw their support behind a cause but then went into government and 'didn't do anything'.
Even Labour MPs, who only want to spend money, called the unfunded commitment 'ludicrous'. So once again, Burnham has done a reverse ferret. He's not going to 'sticky' wasps. Although he might give them subsidised bus travel. That'll win them over. Not.
Now here's the really funny bit. Keir Starmer did exactly the same. And I slammed his naked dishonesty and hypocrisy at the time. In 2022, I revealed that Starmer had publicly backed the Waspi women's campaign for compensation. Two enterprising Waspis ambushed Sir Keir and got him to pose with a card saying: 'I support fair and fast compensation for 1950s women.' He stuck with that line right up to the 2024 election, then promptly backtracked once the votes were in. Exactly as I said he would.
Rightly or wrongly, the Treasury will do everything in its power to avoid paying the Waspis a penny. Anybody who pretends otherwise is kidding themselves – or worse, kidding others. It's not just because of the cost, but the precedent. Once you pay out for one disputed policy change, the floodgates open. Any politician promising otherwise is selling fantasy. Starmer did it anyway. It was an early sign that he would say absolutely anything to get elected, and worry about the consequences later. And now Burnham has now blundered into exactly the same trap.
I had zero sympathy for Starmer over his Waspi U-turn, calling it 'a pickle of his own making'. Now Burnham finds himself in the same pickle. Why? Because like Sir Keir he tells people exactly what they want to hear, then will happily say or do the opposite next day. While expecting them not to notice, mind or hold it against him. And Labour are about to replace the PM with a man who is malfunctioning in exactly the same way? It's madness.
Burnham is a far better communicator than Starmer, but that doesn't help if he's communicating the same old rubbish. He'll end up being an even worse PM than the current one. It's hard to imagine that's even possible.
