The Sun opinion piece, on UK Politics, 3 November 2026

6.0out of 10Serious

Andy Burnham is a pushover PM who is desperate to please everyone – he will end up ruining Britain

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2 comments 2 Next ANDY BURNHAM is far more likeable that the previous occupant of Number 10. He has cultivated an image as someone who listens and who desperately wants to please us all as much as he possibly can. 4 Andy Burnham is on the path to fiscal disaster 4 King Charles on his Caribbean tour in Antigua and Barbuda Source: Reuters Advertisement But that is the problem, and the reason why his premiership is already descending into disaster for Britain.

The Prime Minister has signalled to the world that he is a pushover — and the world has noticed. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! Email address Please provide a valid email. Your info will be used in accordance with our Privacy Policy You'll now receive top stories, breaking news, and more, straight to your email. In the space of just three days, Burnham has backtracked on the Government’s promise to tighten migration, he has ­committed Britain to pay £40million to governments which have been pressing for slavery reparations , and he has offered to pay £450million to subsidise the UK tuition fees of students from the EU.

Combined with last week’s dithering Budget , which failed to cut a single penny from the soaring benefits bill, Burnham has set Britain on a path to rapid fiscal destruction. Read More on Opinion HARRY COLE Key US midterm states to watch – and what a Trump defeat could mean for world CLEMMIE MOODIE Slavery is a stain on the past, but PM must focus on people struggling TODAY And one thing is certain: Britain cannot afford Andy Burnham. Take the issue of slavery reparations .

A few days ago, when the King arrived for his Caribbean tour , Burnham seemed to be resolute. Britain would not be making an apology for historic slavery, and neither would it countenance paying reparations. Advertisement Most read in The Sun FAST RISE Meet CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins SICK 'ATTACK' Afghan migrants 'raped autistic girl, 14, in toilet attack on commuter train' FALLING APART Shock twist as tail of doomed Learjet recovered four miles from crash site EU WHAT?

Sachets of popular condiments could be BANNED from cafes in move to align with EU If the Commonwealth insisted on putting the issue high on the agenda of its Heads of Government meeting, it was hinted that the PM might not even turn up. There are very good reasons why this has been the established position of UK governments ever since the subject of ­reparations was first raised. Apologising for things that other ­governments did many years ago is insincere and means nothing.

It was a favourite political ruse of Tony Blair — make official apologies for things that previous Tory governments did, then his government could try to clamber on to the moral high ground. As for reparations, what kind of justice is it when UK citizens, many of whom are themselves descended from slaves, have to shell out punitive taxes in order to hand it over to Caribbean countries which have large numbers of British tax exiles living there?

Advertisement Governments in developing countries have turned to campaigning on reparations because they think it will hide their own economic failures. The King — who, in a constitutional ­monarchy, represents the elected government — duly made expressions of “sorrow” over slavery and left it at that. How outrageous that his PM — who ­jetted out to see him on a £20,000 taxpayer-funded jet — has now hung him out to dry by suggesting that the Government might, after all, offer an apology. 4 Shabana ­Mahmood’s proposed reforms to migration rules have been watered down Source: PA 4 The EU has sniffed Burnham’s weakness and wants Britain to stop foreign offenders being sent back to their home countries (stock picture) Source: PA Advertisement Even worse, Burnham has folded in the face of demands over reparations, agreeing to hand over £40million to Commonwealth governments for green energy schemes.

If he thinks that is going to satisfy them, he is going to be deeply disappointed. Don’t forget, the reparations movement has already put out a report claiming that Britain owes £18TRILLION (six times the size of the UK economy) — a figure which one of its authors suggested was an “under-estimate”. Burnham’s weakness has ensured that these people are going to come back for more and more. They will not be satisfied until the last NHS hospital has to be sold off to pay this so-called “debt”.

Advertisement The EU , too, has sniffed Burnham’s weakness. No sooner had the Prime Minister suggested he might agree to ­ subsidise EU students’ fees in return for an agreement on a “reset” in cross-Channel relations than the EU has come up with another demand. It wants Britain to change the law to stop foreign offenders being sent back to their home countries. In other words, the EU wants to dump its very worst citizens on us. As for ­watering down Shabana ­Mahmood’s proposed reforms to migration rules , that is another multi-billion-pound commitment which Burnham, in his rush to please left-wing backbenchers, has failed to register.

Until Monday it seemed that the Government understood a very deep ­problem: Many of the hundreds of ­thousands of care workers who came to Britain during the migration “Boriswave” are fast approaching the five-year mark, at which they can apply for indefinite leave to remain in Britain. Advertisement That means they will be eligible to claim benefits and a state pension . Mahmood had proposed that the five-year qualifying period be put back to 15 years for low-paid workers.

But now she has agreed to exempt 282,000 of them. Britain is already straining beneath the yoke of a bloated state. Last year, taxpayers had to fork out £109billion just to pay the interest on the Government’s debts.

Advertisement Burnham has just condemned us to an even bigger bill, and quite possibly the total collapse of the public finances if bond markets lose all confidence in the Government’s ability to manage its finances. That would mean very deep cuts being forced on public services, whether Labour MPs liked it or not. RECOMMENDED STORIES Burnham is going to find out the hard way that a Prime Minister who sets out trying to please everyone is doomed to end up pleasing no one.

If he wants to save himself — and ­Britain — he is going to have to discover some backbone pretty quickly. 2 comments 2

Read the original article on thesun.co.uk (opens in a new tab)
What we found (1)

Ross Clark's Sun column argues that Andy Burnham is a weak Prime Minister who will wreck the public finances. Its case on migration rests on a lifetime cost figure for any minimum-wage worker, which it presents as the cost of exempting 282,000 care workers from a longer wait for settlement. The rest is argument, which is not judged here.

Opinion piece: read for false claims of fact and for fairness to the people it names, not for its opinions.

  1. Uses figures that mislead

    Serious

    “Given that the OBR calculates a worker on the minimum wage will cost the taxpayer a net £150,000 by the time they reach retirement age, and £582,000 if they go on to live until the age of 80, you can see just how dramatic an effect this will have on the public finances.”

    Why this matters
    Clark takes an OBR lifetime cost for any worker on the minimum wage and sets it beside the 282,000 exempted care workers, saying this shows how dramatic the effect of the exemption will be.
    The impression it gives
    A reader comes away believing that exempting these care workers adds something like £150,000 to £582,000 each to the public bill, a sum in the tens of billions.
    The context
    By the column's own account, the exemption only changes when these workers can apply for settlement: Mahmood had proposed moving the qualifying period from five to 15 years, and 282,000 are now exempt. The OBR figure describes the lifetime net cost of a minimum-wage worker. It does not measure the cost of reaching settlement ten years earlier. Clark gives no figure for the cost of the exemption itself, so the sum he implies is not the one his source calculates.

    How we know

    • Elsewhere in the article“five-year qualifying period be put back to 15 years for low-paid workers”
    • Elsewhere in the article“she has agreed to exempt 282,000 of them”

    Show it in the article

    Written straight

    Mahmood had proposed making low-paid workers wait 15 years rather than five before applying for settlement, and 282,000 care workers are now exempt. The OBR estimates a minimum-wage worker's lifetime net cost to the taxpayer, but that is not an estimate of what the exemption itself will cost.

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