The Makerfield test was meant to be at the heart of Andy Burnham’s government. When Burnham was elected as an MP back in June, he said: ‘A Makerfield test at the heart of British politics will make sure that the places Westminster has neglected will now get fairness.’
Mr S wonders if Burnham has applied it to his latest pronouncement that the United Kingdom could rejoin the European Union after the Prime Minister told the BBC he will consider ‘going all the way’ after the next election.
Burnham said that it will be one of a series of options up for consideration: ‘I have said in the book that I would like to see Britain rejoin in my lifetime so there’s no point me saying otherwise, but it’s not necessarily the case that that is now because we need to understand what would be the nature of how we would look at the different options.
‘We could stay as we are. We could look at what George Osborne has said about a customs union. We could look at what the Liberal Democrats said about the single market or we could go all the way.’
Sir Keir Starmer had a habit for U-turns (reaching far into double figures) but this is taking the biscuit. In only May this year, Burnham said: ‘My view is that Brexit has been damaging, but I also believe the last thing we should do right now is re-run those arguments.’
He added: ‘I am not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU.
‘I respect the decision that was made at the referendum and it is going to undermine everything I have said about strengthening democracy if we don’t respect that vote.’
At that point in time he was only in the running for the Makerfield by-election, a constituency that voted 65 per cent to leave in the Brexit referendum.
The longer Burnham is in No.10 the less the Makerfield test seems to matter.
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