Andy Burnham will enter No10 as Prime Minister without facing questions from MPs, as Labour blocks a move to force him to face scrutiny.
Andy Burnham will become Prime Minister without facing a single question from MPs, after Labour blocked a vote to force him into the hot seat. After storming to victory in the Labour leadership race by being the only candidate to enter, the Makerfield MP has been slammed for refusing to spell out what he will do once he walks into No 10. Conservatives claimed: “This is a man who is frit, running scared of public scrutiny.”
Mr Burnham will be officially declared Labour leader on Friday July 17, and will meet the King to become Prime Minister on Monday July 20. But Labour have blocked Tory attempts to force him to come to Parliament to explain his plans. Instead, the new Prime Minister will escape scrutiny from MPs until the House of Commons returns from the summer break, on September 1.
Get the latest politics news – straight from our team in Westminster and more Invalid email
We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. Read our Privacy Policy
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch had planned to ask the House of Commons to vote on whether to sit for an extra day next week. If the vote had been passed, then MPs would have been able to ask Mr Burnham questions after he became Prime Minister.
But that vote has now been blocked by the Government, meaning MPs won’t even be allowed to discuss the idea.
It means the House of Commons begins its holidays on Thursday July 16, with Mr Burnham entering Downing Street a few days later.
The former Blair-era MP has form for dodging awkward questions – running away when challenged by this paper over his shifting stance on rejoining the EU.
And so far MPs and the British public have needed to glean his plans from a question and answer session on the website reddit, whose users have an average age of 23-years-old. Fears are growing that the former Manchester mayor will take the keys to Downing Street having faced almost no grilling over his agenda.
An ardent Remainer, Mr Burnham called for Britain to be dragged back to Brussels as recently as last year, before watering that down when contesting Makerfield, a heavily Leave-voting seat.
Ms Badenoch branded the move “unprecedented” and accused Labour of “running scared”.
“They know the honeymoon will be over the minute he has to tell us his plans,” she fumed.
Shadow Commons leader Jesse Norman blasted the Government for being unable to “bear the idea of a new prime minister facing any scrutiny”, adding Mr Burnham had been “chosen by a coronation not a contest, with no known platform, almost no known policies and no idea of his priorities or indeed his Cabinet team”.
Tory insiders pointed out Mr Burnham himself once demanded a general election when Rishi Sunak became PM without a public vote.
“People across this country will see what has happened and they will conclude that this is a man who is frit, running scared of public scrutiny before he can even take office,” Mr Norman added.
But Commons Leader Sir Alan Campbell, who nominated Mr Burnham, insisted he blocked the vote because he had not seen “the words of the motion”, instead allowing a debate on Iran.
Tory MP Alexander Stafford told the Express: “The only difference between him and the old Starmer regime is a tighter t-shirt, and that won’t last very long either.”
