Andy Burnham has turned No. 10 into a circus - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Lester May, Camden Town, London.

Andy Burnham’s first week in office makes me think of Barnum’s Circus.

There is a Sucker Born Ev'ry Minute is one of the numbers in the musical Barnum and, given the small sweets offered as tasters by Burnham this past week, it’s hard not to get the tune out of my head.

Gullible voters may think I Like Your Style but I fear it won’t be long before we wish again for the dull days of Keir Starmer.

Join the Circus seemed to be the mantra of Burnham with his No.10 North but this prime example of Manchesterism is surely a completely unnecessary, performative act of virtue signalling. It probably won’t add to efficiency and it certainly costs money at a time when much more important things are in need of attention and larger budgets.

To copy absurd EU practice, with its dual homes in Brussels and Strasbourg, is hardly sound. To push No.10 North in week one of his premiership is plain daft.

At the very least he should have taken time to discuss and think about this new adventure. Improvements in the attitude of Whitehall to the North – and elsewhere in our islands – can perfectly well be done in Whitehall if there’s a will, and Andy Burnham surely has that will.

Why Manchester, anyway?Why not Derby, Sheffield, Doncaster, Leeds or Newcastle? Does Burnham only think Mancunian?

Also, with his trivial giveaways in his first days, I fear that Burnham is telling voters that he likes playing with the toys in his new cupboard but does not really understand how the levers and buttons work or where the batteries are inserted.

It’s the summer holidays. The Prime Minister should slow down on domestic issues, stop showing off and look and learn – and think. He should certainly take action very soon on much more important matters like defence, the Chagos Islands and illegal immigration.