Lee Brown

@Heccles94 Are you doing a competition for how many factual errors someone can put into 280 characters?

So if Burnham wins Makerfield, the Manchester Mayoralty will be held under FPTP because Burnham Never finalised STV during his mayoralty and would have quit before seeing it through. Not the best champion of voter reform then.

@SteveNickSmith It may happen. It may not happen. But why do you take what The Sun political editor says as the truth. It's The Sun for god's sake.

The one thing about Burnham is he is being far more honest than Starmer was at the same equivalent stage of his putative leadership career that next to nothing will change in UK politics. If you are still backing Burnham as a change agent, you are as dumb as a box of rocks

@joshsimonsmp You were pretty "radical" when organising for journalists to be spied on and all the other stuff that's starting to come out about Labour Together.

Being an MP has radicalised me. People don’t trust politics because votes don’t produce big change. Sclerotic institutions are too used to the status quo. I loved being a local MP. Stepping aside was tough. But @AndyBurnhamGM can rebuild these broken systems. Britain needs it. thetimes.com/article/11f6e9…

@HespeChris34466 @RichardBurgon Out of interest, where does it say that?

@RichardBurgon Yes, but... Can you stop using the phrase 'working people'? The Labour Party was set up to represent 'working class people', including those who do not or cannot work, ie. the disabled, elderly and sick. You sound like one of Starmer's bots when you say 'working people'.

Neoliberalism isn’t a “buzzword”. It’s the near 50-year political, economic and ideological project that has brought so many communities to their knees. It smashed workers’ rights, imposed austerity, deregulated the banks that then crashed the economy, privatised public utilities like water and energy, sold off council houses, handed tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations, turned universities into an unaffordable market, transformed public services into sources of private profit through outsourcing and PFI, and much more. It's the root cause of so much of what has gone wrong in our country. And it was all done to enrich the tiny elite that Tony Blair now so clearly represents.

@ShippersUnbound They're honest and sensible as long as they agree with you. Cool.

Further to Blair. Literally every honest sensible person in all the main parties privately agrees with all these propositions: - welfare spending is too high and is throwing good people on the scrapheap - defence spending is too low - the triple lock is unsustainable - without cheap energy we cannot exploit the AI revolution - we should be investing in EVERY form of energy: renewables, nuclear and the North Sea - migration needs to be controlled to boost social cohesion and because the boats look like a huge failure of the state - any new relationship with the EU will be imposed on us until we are stronger and cannot involve the closeness some desire without freedom of movement - we are deeply embedded with America in ways which the public does not understand and cannot be told and however joyous it makes us feel to hate Trump, disengagement at the deep state level is not only wholly unrealistic but also undesirable - Whitehall needs a total overhaul so specific project expertise and political appointees can be brought in quickly Blair basically says all that. The one thing he doesn’t say and which the same group of people agree on is this and it’s something Blair left behind: - judges and quangos have too much power, are unaccountable and without redressing the balance in favour of parliament it is very difficult to do anything big fast - the bare minimum that needs to change in this regard is to reform judicial review and planning law so we can put building and economic growth ahead of newts and NIMBYs None of that above really ought to be up for discussion. It is all common sense but not one of our politicians will publicly say all of it Whatever you think of Blair, engage with what he’s saying not how he makes you feel. The bare minimum we should expect from any leader is that they have an analysis of the current situation and a plan to deal with it which is as coherent and realistic as his intervention. Pretty well every critique I’ve read so far has failed to meet this requirement. Over to Andy and Keir and Kemi and Nigel and Zack and all the others

@AaronBastani This is not a poll of Makerfield though.

Burnham winning, and the Greens coming 3rd, is why they should stand a candidate and campaign. Voters aren’t a homogenous mass.

@PrfChrisPainter @tugsandtost It was a conference about the North of England

Does Burnham realise that to win a general election he needs a platform that appeals across the country and not just in north of England?

@owenjonesjourno And surely that's ±3% when you consider margin of error 😉

4% of Labour members want Wes Streeting to leader. FOUR PERCENT. And that’s despite a mass exodus of left wingers. Yet the media have treated him as their golden boy!

@GreenJennyJones @GuidoFawkes You don't often retweet a site that was set up to boost the hard right. Except when it suits your political interests.

Well, I don't often repost @GuidoFawkes but this is true about PR.

Millions of progressives will be looking at what the Greens do in Makerfield. So they’ll need an explanation justifiable to millions - not the false claim they can win there. That’s like Jo Swinson in 2019 refusing to choose between Corbyn and Boris by claiming she’d be PM!

@tomwhx An MP was murdered. Your dismissing of that is sickening.

Old enough to remember when Andy Burnham ruled out holding a second EU referendum because someone died the first time and another one would be "worse"

@kevin_ovenden Analogies are never perfect and this one especially so. But one role for the greens could be to put left pressure on him in office like Podemos/Sumar do in Spain on Sanchez. Obviously that would reflect a certain vision for the party. But one I suspect most members would back.

Understandable debate among Greens about standing or not in Makerfield. It's compounded bc strategy for change is a coalition government that includes Labour. Args both ways. That said, those saying campaign *purely* in order to destroy Burnham should be ignored as headbangers.

@kevin_ovenden Surely it has to be inauthentic if that is to work? People have seen who he is. They hate him.

So Starmer himself as well as many internal opponents are suggesting his immediate fate depends upon delivering a rallying "reset" speech worthy of Henry at Agincourt. Calls for him to "be authentic". But he cannot do it. He's had six years and he's never managed it.

@KarlTurnerMP @CatherineWest1 Doesn't that only apply if the leader is "permanently unavailable" (p29)? Here we're talking about a leadership challenge when Keir hasn't resigned. That should be for MPs, unions & members to decide. (He should announce his departure date so we can have a smooth transition)

@leejamesbrown @CatherineWest1 When in Government the rule book states that the cabinet decides the “interim” leader pending a selection process if it is needed.

Why couldn’t @CatherineWest1 become PM? Have we consulted or even considered the actual members about what they want? I know what my CLP members want. They are seriously cheesed off. And for good reason.

@kateferguson4 You can vote for that. Others can vote for other things.

As a Lewisham local, I just want my bins collected and the occasional fireworks display.

@streetswept @Johnmcternan I don't think it is. It's the conclusion of their actions. And they would rather it happen than anyone deemed "left" lead the party. But it's not their goal.

@leejamesbrown @Johnmcternan It's their goal.

TL; DR: We can take Labour into single figures if we stay the course.

@siennamarla Journalists so it can lead the morning bulletins.

Who are these appointments for?

@ToryWipeout @salak500 @RichardBurgon How's Labour done in Wales? Whose fault is that?

@salak500 @RichardBurgon You could know what's been delivered or stay quiet it saves you looking dull 👍

These results make one thing clear: Keir Starmer has fought his last election as Labour leader. We now need a timetable for an orderly transition to a new leader by the end of this year. This could not be more serious. It's about stopping Farage entering No.10 My new article👇