Matthew Cook

@tinyrowlet Over the damn fool that wrote this policy.

as a trans man i'm not allowed to use the men's toilet now because it says F on my birth certificate but i'm also not allowed to use the women's toilet because i may cause distress for looking like a man.... WHERE TF DO YOU WANT ME TO PISS????

@LastBlairite Can you imagine Badenoch getting under his skin at PMQ for a full melt down?

Andy Burnham is collapsing into anger under the tiniest bits of scrutiny. Thank goodness Labour are led by Keir Starmer.

@BenKentish Boaty McBoatface in human form, just because people voted for her, doesn't mean she is best suited to the job.

Lucy Powell tells LBC that she doesn’t think Andy Burnham is coming back to Westminster to launch a leadership bid. 😂😂😂😂

@Vinc_Ev_ And is risking nothing, he can scuttle back to being the mayor of Manchester if he loses.

So we're now being told Burnham has never shied away from a fight. Apart from the one for the soul of the party he now wants to lead, when Corbyn was destroying it. Then we're told now is the fight of his life. A fight so tough, he had to fend off ZERO candidates. Total charlatan

@NiohBerg @SpringInIran Hence the old Persian expression: Black chador, no knickers.

History books will describe how in the final months of the islamic republic, regime prostitutes did overnight marriages to basijis in pink cars with mounted guns in public.

@v_j_freeman Is Bluesky the Islington version of a public school circle jerk?

Over on Bluesky Shabana Mahmoud is considered akin to Satan so it’s interesting to see 62% of *Labour members* favour her immigration policies or something even more strict!

@lisanandy Apart from the antisemitism disaster of course. Burnham was absolutely silent and useless on antisemitism. "Never shied away" My arse.

He has never shied away from a tough fight and this will be one of the toughest. Here, it’s Andy or Reform. He has already shown he has our back - in the pandemic most of all. So for people in towns like ours, this is a fight we have to win.

Delighted @AndyBurnhamGM has been selected for Makerfield. He’s one of us and coming back to fight for the borough he calls home.

@CowRanting @BriannaWu @MrsErikaKirk Bang goes Panto at Christmas then.

@BriannaWu @MrsErikaKirk No he gave us free will. All technology developed by man is from free will. Deuteronomy 22:5  says..."The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman's garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God."

Democrats claim to champion women’s rights, yet they allow men to infiltrate women’s spaces under the guise of identity politics. Then they gaslight anyone who questions it and smear women as “transphobic” for defending basic reality. The hypocrisy is astounding. God created men and women intentionally and in His image, each with a unique design and purpose. A society that can no longer recognize or honor that truth is not just losing fairness in sports, it is losing its understanding of God’s creation and, with it, its humanity.

@SamCoatesSky Poll is meaningless, YouGov cannot verify Labour Party membership as the information is protected. The respondents are self-declared and therefore unreliable.

NEW - YouGov Labour members polling If there is a leadership contest, your first preference: Burnham 47% Starmer 31% Rayner 8% Streeting 4% Miliband 3% Cooper 3% Mahmood 1% Carns 0% Head to heads: Burnham 59% v Starmer 37% Burnham 80% v Streeting 10% Miliband 58% v Streeting 28% Rayner 70% v Streeting 19% On Keir Starmer, should he: Take party into next election 28% Remain as leader until closer to GE 33% Step down no / in months 33% YouGov polled 706 Labour members, May 14-18

@TheNewsAgents @lewis_goodall @jessphillips @maitlis Less spine than a plate of Calamari. You were a Minister, fight for your brief and no, you won't get everything you want or maybe even need.

"I had a moment of realisation... I had been made to feel grateful for crumbs." @jessphillips says she's threatened to resign many times, but one "jarring" moment in Keir Starmer's 'reset' speech made her actually do it. @maitlis | @lewis_goodall

@Daniel_Sugarman The secret to life is sincerity, and if you can fake that, you have got it made" George Burns

The general public will now slowly discover that Andy Burnham is a politician who has gone *what people want to hear is someone who sounds direct & sincere* and has made a great effort to reproduce that, without, and this is the key point, actually being that direct or sincere.

@GordonFielden @Vinc_Ev_ @DanCardenMP More faces than the Town Hall clock.

Andy Burnham’s abrupt U turn on the European Union is not just a misstep. It is a clear sign of the political pressure he is already under. At the weekend, Burnham stated that under his Labour Party the United Kingdom should move towards rejoining the European Union. Within days, he has reversed that position, saying he does not want the UK to rejoin and that he respects the 2016 referendum result. That reversal does not happen in a vacuum. The reality is that Labour’s grassroots membership is widely understood to be strongly in favour of rejoining the European Union. Many estimates place that support at well over half of the party base. The direction of travel inside Labour is not towards retreat from Europe, but towards closer alignment and, ultimately, a public vote on re entry. What Burnham appears to be doing is something very different. He is positioning himself for a political fight in a constituency where Reform is already dominant and where Brexit sentiment remains strong. In doing so, he is attempting to outflank Reform on its own ground, echoing a strategy that has already failed the Conservative Party. It is not credible. You cannot out Reform Reform. The Conservative Party tried it, and it collapsed under the weight of its own contradictions. Voters who want that message will go to the original, not the imitation. Which leaves Burnham in a deeply uncomfortable position. On one side, a Labour membership that increasingly sees Britain’s future tied to closer relations with Europe. On the other, a political calculation that tells him to say the opposite in order to survive a local electoral contest. That is where the problem lies. Because leadership is not about saying one thing to one audience and something entirely different to another. It is about setting a direction and holding it. The economic reality is also closing in. The argument that Brexit is not working is no longer confined to one side of politics. It is becoming part of the mainstream debate, driven by growth figures, trade friction, and long term investment concerns. The logical path for a governing Labour Party is not to dodge that question, but to confront it. That means moving towards a closer relationship with the European Union and, in time, putting the question back to the country in a referendum once a full decade has passed. Let the public decide. What Burnham’s U turn exposes is something much simpler. He is already shaping his position around short term political pressure rather than long term national strategy. And if that is happening now, before he has even returned to Parliament, it raises a serious question. Is this leadership, or is it calculation? Because the two are not the same.

Working class communities don’t want to be told they got Brexit wrong. They were sending a message, and Labour still hasn’t properly heard it. They voted for change, and they’re still waiting for politicians to deliver it - for their towns, their industries, their way of life. That means secure work, pride in place, and control over their own communities. A Labour party worth its name stands with them, not above them. That is the test for any Labour leader.

@PeterStefanovi2 "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them, I have others" Gracho Marx

"I am not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU, I respect the decision that was made at the referendum," Andy Burnham says

@NDIronsMP @Vinc_Ev_ Who are you talking to?

Oh no! Quick lads, change the subject before someone realises

@lukejcr Hogwash. The by-election is a grubby stitch up to satisfy an overblown ego. It insults the voters and risks handing a seat to Reform.

The Makerfield by-election is a choice between delivery and division. If Andy proves Labour can win, the populist right’s whole business model crumbles. Grievance politics doesn’t help people get on in life. But capping buses at £2 in Greater Manchester? Very popular! 🌹

@OzKaterji @derJamesJackson We tried loud bonhomie and surface deep charisma with Boris Johnson and look how that turned out.

@derJamesJackson I don’t necessarily disagree with that, but I don’t think that detracts from his incredibly impressive record as a lawyer.

For all the claims that Starmer “is a decent man”, why do we never hear stories like this?

@SophyRidgeSky Ten year Keir.

Worse odds than a coin toss

It is time for another lesson from my school teacher through her golden rule of journalism: Who, What, Where, When, and Why. If she were here, her red pen would leave this text bleeding. Let us scan this orchestrated media spin together again the way she taught me to. It is a particular honour to do this with a journalist who thinks he is the elite in that society of inverted values. He is not. But we do not belong to his world. As voters and citizens, we do not want drama. We want to talk about problems like adults who look for solutions, rather than changing Prime Ministers like underwear, which is what the previous gov did. And I am not the only one who sees it. The public comments beneath his post say everything. Citizens are sick of this manufactured chaos. WHO The article relies entirely on a ghost army. 'His ministers tell me', 'some of the cabinet believe', 'one minister insists'. Not a single name. If a politician does not have the courage to put their name next to their words, they have no skin in the game. These are unnamed cowards whispering in a journalist's ear, using the media as a free megaphone because they want power but refuse to take the risk. As everyday voters are rightly pointing out, nobody buys into these faceless whispers anymore. WHAT We are told the PM is trapped in a binary choice: announce his exit now for 'more stability' or wait to be evicted. This is absolute nonsense. Announcing a departure mid-mandate automatically turns a government into a lame duck, freezes crucial reforms, and panics markets. Peston is not reporting on a crisis. He is actively manufacturing one to push the agenda of internal plotters. WHERE The setting is entirely inside the walls of Chequers and the elite Westminster bubble. Peston and his anonymous sources are playing chess with titles and legacies, completely detached from the real world outside. Millions of citizens are living with the reality of high bills and public service strains. For this media-political clique, those millions of people simply do not exist. Real people are telling him to stop looking at pollsters and look at the electorate instead. WHEN The clock in this article is set entirely to a gamble: 'if Burnham wins in Makerfield'. A real, independent journalist would offer at least two alternative timelines. The first is that Reform is incredibly strong in that northern seat and Burnham might actually lose. The second is the very real possibility that this inside plot collapses and none of this happens. Peston sells a prediction as a fact just to speed up the clock on Starmer. WHY Peston completely ignores the real context. Why turn the knives right now? Just last week, official figures showed steady GDP growth, and the government has already delivered nearly 70% of its manifesto in less than two years. A proper analyst must ask: why try to bring down a PM just as economic indicators are finally turning around? The answer lies in personal revenge from structures losing influence in Downing Street. They underestimated Starmer's resolve, and now they want to burn the house down because they can no longer control it. The Verdict My teacher would give this piece a 1/10. It is a coordinated media attack masquerading as news. This is not about blind admiration for Keir Starmer. We are not living in a dictatorship where leaders are treated as flawless gods. He has flaws, and he has made mistakes. But for the first time in a long time, we have a normal human being at the helm who possesses decency and a genuine desire to clean up this inherited mess until the job is done. Robert Peston can write these articles, but he cannot tell me what to think. A journalist like him is definitely not working in our service. 1/10 from my school teacher. And as for Starmer, I give him a 9/10. As a voter for stability, and as part of the public shouting at Peston to get lost with his gossip, we see you right through your words. #Peston #Starmer #UKPolitics

@MarioNawfal @MalcolmNance Not even the Russians were stupid or mad enough to target a nuclear reactor. This is a war crime and proof to the world that they cannot live with the Ayatollahs any more.

🇦🇪🇮🇷 A single drone may have just turned the UAE’s nuclear plant into a tool for geopolitical blackmail. 2 out of the 3 drones that entered UAE airspace today were intercepted. But one did get through… and it hit a generator outside the Barakah nuclear plant, a target that was likely very deliberate. The UAE said the drones came from the western border, which means Saudi airspace, and could point to a few things: They could be Houthi drones transiting from Yemen, Iranian-linked assets operating out of Iraq, or something more complicated nobody is saying out loud yet. Notably, the UAE did not blame Iran directly, breaking from the usual pattern. The drone did not hit the plant’s reactor, the turbine building, or the coolant system, it hit the backup diesel generator. The one system that, if destroyed, would prevent an emergency reactor shutdown in a crisis… Meaning if the next wave concentrates on the 1 km area around Barakah's nuclear containment domes, it could spell absolute disaster. Iran is telling Abu Dhabi: we can irradiate half of the Rub' al Khali and reach Abu Dhabi and Dubai, do NOT let Trump and Netanyahu use your territory as a launchpad. A drone hitting that target isn’t by chance, it’s a message.

@lukeakehurst I joined a long time ago, I'm Jewish, I have a long memory and a vote.

Make Karl and me both happy, join Labour today! labour.org.uk/join