Andy Burnham

Last Wednesday I attended an talk by Andy Burnham in Glasgow. Burnham is one of the four candidates for the Labour Leadership, and I am a proud supporter of him.

First of all, let's learn a little more about Andy. He was born in Liverpool on January 7th 1970, the son of a telephone engineer Father and a receptionist Mother. Andy joined the Labour Party when he was 14. From 1994 until the 1997 general election, he was a researcher for Tessa Jowell. In 1998 he became a special adviser to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Smith. He stayed in this position until 2001 when he was elected into the House of Commons. 

Burnham is currently the MP for Leigh, Greater Manchester. He is also the shadow secretory of State for Health, and has had these jobs from 2001 and 2011 respectively.

Burnham states that he joined the party as a teenager because he was inspired by the Miner's strikes, and their attempt to fight back at Margaret Thatcher's government. He is a feminist and wants to have an equal number of men & women in his cabinet. Andy is also a supporter of LGBT rights, and voted for same-sex marriage 2013. He opposes nationalism, believing it's an 'ugly brand of politics.'

He has been married to a dutch woman named Marie-France Van Heel since 2000. The couple have a son and two daughters.

He is a big fan of football, and has supported Liverpool Club Everton FC for all of his life.


Policies

Andy's main policies are:

• Abolish tuition fees and bring in a graduation tax
• Establish a true living wage, which would be the same regardless of your age
• Ban forced Zero-hour contracts and unpaid internships
• Lower the voting age to 16
• Keep Britain in the EU
• Encourage the EU to work together to combat the migrant crisis and help refugees get to a safe place to fulfil their lives
• Renationalise the railways
• A ban on fracking and investment in "the Green economy"
• Establish National Health and Care Service, bringing social care into the NHS
• Allow councils to borrow more to build homes
• Establish a re-balanced and fairer tax system

During his talk, he stressed how he felt that Labour was "crumbling apart" and he would bring the necessary changes to re-unite the party. He admitted the mistakes that Labour had made in the past and explained what he'd do to change that. Because this talk was in Scotland, many audience members asked about how Labour would re-build itself in Scotland. Andy said he would give the new leader of Scottish Labour, Kezia Dugdale, the autonomy she needs to make Labour strong again in Scotland. He admitted that there was an element of trust lost between the party and the public, and he would help bring back that lost trust. Because many voters are now just asking "But what does Labour even stand for anymore?" Andy wants to build a solid answer to that question, and increase the Labour vote in the country.

To me, he is a very honest and confident speaker. He answers questions properly, and doesn't try to avoid giving the answer, like many other politicians do. He is definitely a man of the people and believe that Labour has become too London-centric. I have voted for Andy in the Leadership contest, and I believe he is the candidate to lead the party to a victory in 2020.

During the question session, I asked him "I understand that you would lower the voting age to 16. But how would you make sure that young people voting are able to make an informed decision and not just vote by random or go with the crowd?" Andy answered saying he would implement compulsory politics education in schools so that 16 and 17 year olds would learn about what the parties' policies are, and learn how to make an informed and confident decision. At the end of the event, I was lucky enough to meet him and I managed to get this photograph!

So if you ever have the chance to attend one of his speeches, definitely do, they're worth going to. Maybe this will persuade you to vote for him, as you still have eight days left to do so! To sum it up, Andy Burnham has...

The Best policies for the UK and the strongest Leadership Qualities for a Labour victory in 2020