Andy Burnham accused of being ‘stuck in past’ after using first Commons speech to attack Thatcher and Brexit

NEW PM Andy Burnham was accused of being stuck in the past today after using his first Commons speech to moan about Brexit and Margaret Thatcher. The Labour leader said that “Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be” and blamed “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” as well as the decision to leave the EU. Andy Burnham making his first Commons speech as PM Credit: PA Kemi Badenoch accused the PM of being stuck in the past Credit: PA He faced MPs for the first time since entering No10 six weeks ago and embarking on a summer tour announcing relatively small cost of living giveaways. But yesterday he faced a grilling from MPs on pressing issues including immigration, welfare and defence as Parliament returned from holiday. Sign up for the Politics newsletter Thank you! Speaking at the dispatch box for the first time in 16 years, Mr Burnham said: “Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be. Things are not working as they should. Life is too expensive and too hard for too many.” The former Manchester Mayor said his decade away from Westminster politics had given him a “clear diagnosis” of the source of the UK’s woes. The PM took aim at the legacy of Ms Thatcher and her mass programme of privatisation as well as pulling out of the EU. He said: “Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, the country deindustrialised, austerity followed, hollowing out councils and depriving them of the agency to act to reverse any of this.” He added: “Then Brexit compounded the damage, ushering in a decade of low growth and stalled regeneration. “Far from taking back control, the combination of these policies took control out of the hands of communities up and down Britain for 40 years, too many places have been drifting.” Most read in The Sun Tory leader Kemi Badenoch attacked Mr Burnham for living in the past when he should be focused on the future. She hit back: “The year is 2026 yet the prime minister said in his statement that everything has gone wrong since the 1980s, still complaining about Margaret Thatcher. I am 46 years old, I may not look it but I’m 46 years old. “He is talking about a woman who became prime minister before I was born. He is living in the past and he wants to take us back to the 1970s. “On this side of the House, we are for the future not the past. That is the difference between them and us. “His ideas are all about more government control, more spending, more tax, more politicians.” She blamed the £70billion of tax rises under Labour for the sluggish growth dogging the British economy. Analysis By Martina Bet, Chief Political Correspondent ANDY Burnham made his first big speech to the Commons as Prime Minister. It should have been an easy ride. He spent the summer touring the country, promising to tackle voters’ biggest grievances, ease the cost-of-living squeeze and give families some much-needed “breathing space”. The TikToks have been slick. The promises have so far been quite cheap. And the King of the North has long been hailed as one of Labour’s smoothest communicators. His MPs should have been bouncing off the green benches.After all, they have all just returned from their summer holidays having successfully knifed Sir Keir Starmer and installed the man many of them hope will save their seats at the next election. But the atmosphere in the Commons was strangely muted. Some Labour MPs were texting, others were chatting among themselves, smiles were in short supply and the cheers hardly threatened to bring the roof down. To be fair, even Burnham was making their job difficult. A politician who prides himself on talking straight chose his first statement to introduce Britain to a “triple helix approach” to economic development. It means bringing together “business, academia, and government”.Try chanting that from the back benches. “Triple helix! Triple helix!” No, thought not. Perhaps Labour MPs were simply conserving their energy. And that’s because beyond the glossy videos and summer honeymoon sits an autumn in-tray from hell. Comment now