The shamelessness of Andy Burnham

Of all the people who should carry the can for Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour party, Andy Burnham doesn’t get his fair share of the stick. It was, after all, Burnham’s fear of being the most left-wing candidate in the 2015 leadership contest that led to Corbyn being ‘loaned’ enough MPs’ votes to get Dear Jeremy on the ballot.

Despite this fact, Burnham felt no shame in saying in an interview this weekend that, ‘I still think life would have been different if I had won in 2015’, as if he hadn’t been his own worst enemy in denying that victory from taking place. That’s before we move onto mention all of the damage that Burnham’s hapless attempt to fix the contest did to his party in the wake of the four and a half years of Corbynism that followed. Shamelessness does seem to be a trademark of Burnham’s politics — now more than ever.

Mere days after being re-elected as mayor of Manchester, Burnham is putting himself in the shop window as the next Labour leader in a way that is so in your face it borders on self-parody.