A man of the people? Burnham doesn’t even know price of petrol!
ANDY Burnham’s attempts to portray himself as a man of the people backfired yesterday when he was exposed for not knowing the price of petrol.
The Labour leadership hopeful said he thought a litre of unleaded cost £1.60, but the average forecourt price is currently around £1.16. His answer jarred with his attempts to flaunt his working-class credentials before members of the GMB union.
His previous criticisms of Labour appearing to be part of the ‘metropolitan elite’ were also undermined when a picture emerged of a young Mr Burnham – dressed in black tie – posing with a group of Westminster insiders who formed a New Labour football team.
The Shadow Health Secretary spoke at the GMB union’s annual conference in Dublin yesterday, telling how his grandparents were labourers from ‘here in Ireland ... who left this country to work on the docks in Liverpool’. He insisted that if elected leader he would remain true to his working-class roots and ‘take Labour out of the Westminster bubble’.
But his petrol price blunder will raise question marks about whether he understands the concerns of families concerned about the cost of filling their car.
David Cameron was criticised in 2013 when he was unable to say how much a loaf of bread cost, insisting he baked his own with a breadmaker and artisan flour.
Mr Burnham, who attended a comprehensive school before going on to Cambridge, praised Ed Miliband for ‘refocusing our party on inequality’ and added: ‘I have never forgotten who I am or where I come from.
‘I am somebody who is true to my roots, my values, the people who put me where I am today. If you choose me, that won’t change.’
But he was booed by the audience when he refused to answer yes or no to the question of whether he backed the Government’s proposed benefit cap of £23,000. He said the question was ‘a little unfair’.
The football team picture shows Mr Burnham alongside other ambitious men at Westminster in the Blair era. Members of the ‘Demon Eyes’ Sunday league team – named after the Tory attack advert against Tony Blair – included James Purnell, the former Labour Cabinet minister who is now director of strategy at the BBC, and Tim Allen, who runs the lobbying and PR firm Portland.