Good riddance!

AS he sashayed around the television studios yesterday, Alan Milburn – the preening former Health Secretary – missed no chance to play the martyr.

He was resigning as social mobility tsar because Theresa May has failed to build ‘a country that works for everyone’.

Yet that was not the full story. Mr Milburn had been told he would be replaced, so launched a New Labour-style spin operation against the Government. In truth, this former Marxist was long past his sell-by date.

His attacks on ministers for ignoring the poor rang entirely hollow, when the Tories have hiked the minimum wage and handed huge tax cuts to low earners. No one could fairly accuse Mrs May of not trying to make housing more affordable, with billions more pledged in last month’s Budget.

Nor does his claim of growing ‘social division’ hold water. Wage inequality is lower than in 2010; the richest 1 per cent are paying a record 27 per cent of all income tax.

But most offensive of all was this embittered Remainer’s patronising attitude to working class Brexit voters. Insulting their intelligence, he claimed they voted Leave in protest at a lack of social mobility and are now being betrayed by the Prime Minister.

In truth, a great many voted to stop the untrammelled immigration which Labour did so much to encourage.

If Mrs May is looking for someone to replace this flouncing quangocrat, she should look no further than Iain Duncan Smith, a doughty campaigner for social justice.

As for Mr Milburn, it’s good riddance!