Andy Burnham’s “dithering” leadership has been handed a bleak assessment following fresh fiscal criticism from ex-Business Secretary Peter Kyle.
Speaking to GB News, political commentator Piers Pottinger hit out at the “shambles” Labour Government under its new Prime Minister.
Taking aim at Mr Burnham, former Mr Kyle has told the BBC he believes there “isn’t enough focus” on growth within the Labour Government.
He said: “That isn’t a criticism, it is pointing to the potential that we have as a country and as a Government. I think we need to up our ambition. I think we need to act with more urgency when it comes to economic growth.
“We must feel the need for economic growth as acutely as we do about tackling things like rough sleeping and about social care and some of the social reforms that we want, because they are inextricably linked.”
Delivering his verdict on Mr Kyle’s criticism, Mr Pottinger told GB News the remarks are “a bit rich” coming from the ex-Business Secretary.
He said: “It’s a bit rich coming from him, isn’t it, given that he was the business secretary, incidentally preceded and succeeded by Jonathan Reynolds, the man who claimed to be a solicitor that hadn’t passed his exams.
“Actually, this is indicative of this whole Government, it’s a total shambles already.”
Highlighting the internal row between Angela Rayner and Shabana Mahmood on migrant visas, Mr Pottinger argued he “doesn’t know what planet these people are on”.
He told GB News: “We’ve heard about Angela Rayner criticising Shabana Mahmood, Peter Kyle, the man who was the business secretary, saying the Government’s not doing enough of for growth when it hasn’t actually changed the policy he was supposedly in charge of. I don’t know what planet these people live on.”
Mr Pottinger also took aim at Mr Burnham’s plans for an EU reset and his idea that “the world was better in the 70s”.
He said: “The fact is this country’s growth this year will be looking at around one per cent, which is hardly here or there. But despite that, it’s still better than most of Europe.
“And it’s ironic that the Labour Party and Burnham and co are also saying we want to go back into Europe, we must go back into Europe as if this is some sort of Nirvana for the future.
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“They also seem to think rather like Burnham thinks the world was better in the 70s, which it wasn’t, incidentally. It was horrible for those of us who remember it well and had to live through it. Now he’s talking about going back into Europe as some sort of Nirvana, as if it was like it was in 2016.
“If you actually look at what Europe is like, it’s a total disaster and only a madman would want to join Europe now and give up our sovereignty, give up our currency.”
As host Charlie Peters argued that Labour is “repeating the same strategy” as the Tories with “constant chaos and infighting and a churn of leaders”, the commentator was quick to agree.
He said: “They are indeed, yes, and they are a fractionalised party, we know that there’s no unity. Ironically, the most unified party is probably the Liberal Democrats, who are completely hopeless anyway with a leader who will say yes to anyone if he thinks he’s going to get a job out of it.
“The Labour Party is a shambles, it’s showing itself to be a shambles. He lives in cloud cuckoo land. Don’t forget Greater Manchester, which he’s so proud of, has the highest debt of any council in the country.
“His wonderful buses actually had to borrow a billion pounds from UK taxpayers, it loses £154,000,000 a year and he calls that a success.
“It’s rather like someone who’s maxed out on all his debt but has no idea how he’s going to pay it off, but just carries on spending anyway.”
Mr Pottinger concluded: “In some ways I wish he had a relative who was a tool maker because as we got to know, more than anything, Keir Starmer will be remembered for the fact his father was a tool maker.
“Andy Burnham will be remembered for the fact he was once the Mayor of Greater Manchester. So far as Prime Minister, he dithers, he jumps in, he wants to allow people in football matches to drink. I mean, it’s all trivial.”
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