Burnham slaps down Miliband backers
Andy Burnham sent a message to supporters of David Miliband last night, telling them to stop “jostling” for position.
The culture secretary, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour programme, suggested he believed the “testing times” currently experienced by the government did not justify a leadership challenge to prime minister Gordon Brown.
“I think it is important that we understand what happened in Glasgow East and respond in the way the public want us to – to come up with a policy programme which reflects the pressures people are facing here and now today,” he said.
Mr Burnham – closely associated with Mr Brown’s predecessor in No 10, Tony Blair – distanced himself from those like health minister Ivan Lewis who have been proposing policy changes outside his portfolio.
“It is testing times and in many ways an unprecedented period for the Labour party. It’s in our own hands how we respond. The right way is not appearing to the rest of the country that we’re just obsessed with our own positions and constantly jostling.”
Labour supporters hope the combination of a strong conference speech by Mr Brown and economic measures contained in chancellor Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report will help alleviate the party’s poor fortunes in the polls.
Mr Burnham said he hopes an offensive against the Conservatives’ policies can be mounted, in which Labour can “actually begin to take the fight a bit more to the opposition”.
“I think they’re getting far too easy a ride. I think they’ve got in many ways a threadbare policy agenda,” he added.
