Patrick O’Flynn Patrick O’Flynn

Burnham’s gamble could collapse around him

(Photo by Martin Rickett - Pool/Getty Images)

If they were to give out awards for best use of an anorak to communicate stroppy defiance then Andy Burnham would be about to break the stranglehold of former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher.

In a city where it rains on more than 150 days a year, it is perhaps unsurprising that the anorak has become the garb of the everyman. And it was surely no accident that Greater Manchester’s Mayor was clad in one as he spoke out on Thursday against Whitehall’s plans to put his region into the highest tier of lockdown controls.

After successfully launching his theme on the BBC’s Question Time last week (when he told viewers ‘it does feel increasingly to people like we are being treated with contempt in the north of England’), Labour’s Mr Manchester upped the ante for the gathered TV news crews.

‘They are willing to sacrifice jobs and businesses here to try and save them elsewhere.

Comments

Join the debate for just $5 for 3 months

Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for $5.

Already a subscriber? Log in