ANDY Burnham has been accused of “dancing to Nigel Farage's tune” after pledging to make “greater use” of migrant detention centres if he succeeds Keir Starmer as prime minister.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, who is vying to become the Labour MP for Makerfield in a by-election on June 18, said on Monday that the UK Government needs to “go further” on issues like immigration.
“We need to make greater use of detention so that people who have got no basis for a claim are not actually admitted into the country,” he told BBC Radio Manchester.
Burnham later added: “I used to be an immigration minister under the Blair government. We did get a grip on the system at that point in time. This government is getting more of a grip but it does need to go further.”
He went on: “What I am calling for is the reform of these Home Office contracts. I do agree with what [Nigel] Farage is saying. What we’ve got to do is get back to a sense of order.”
But these comments have led to condemnation from opposition parties already concerned about the Labour Government's immigration policies, including the SNP.
“Andy Burnham likes to paint himself as the champion of the left but those comments from the Prime Minister-in-waiting show that it doesn’t matter to voters in Scotland who holds the keys to number 10,” SNP MSP Alex Kerr told The National.
“The Labour Party is running so scared of Nigel Farage it will carry on lurching further and further to the right as it desperately dances to his tune and Reform's toxic agenda."
The Scottish Greens also weighed in, accusing Burnham of “cosplaying as a socialist”.
“Andy Burnham is trying to present himself as some radical new socialist in Labour, but we’ve seen exactly the kind of politician he is before. This is a man who served in Government under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, was a member of Labour Friends of Israel, and has flip flopped on Brexit,” the party’s justice spokesperson Maggie Chapman (above) said.
“It should come as no surprise that a Labour politician is more than happy to cosplay as a socialist but when it comes to delivery, is comfortable to mimic the worst of Tory policies to gain power.”
Chapman added: “Andy is right about one thing: this country isn’t functioning properly. But that's not because of people arriving on small boats. It's because of the people arriving by private jet - the same people who have exploited our workers and extracted obscene wealth from our planet.
“Real change isn’t going to be delivered by the status-quo Labour Party - no matter the leader. The Scottish Greens are ready to deliver real change for people and planet.”
