Burnham has taken just two months to prove he’s as weak as Starmer on welfare and defence

Andy pander IT’S taken less than two months for Andy Burnham to show he has no more grip on either welfare spending or defence than his useless predecessor. “National security must never come at the expense of social security,” he told his gleeful backbenchers in the Commons yesterday. In his brief time as leader, Andy Burnham has shown he has no grip on either welfare spending or defence How different is Burnham to failed PM Sir Keir Starmer? Credit: PA As a moment of political self-harm, it was right up there with Labour’s Pat McFadden moaning to Peter Mandelson during the Starmer-era about Labour MPs constantly asking: “Who can we tax in order to pay benefits to others?” Any hope that Burnham might ever put our security above endless Labour demands for more Benefits Street cash has been well and truly blown up. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! The PM lacks the courage to do the right thing and re-arm in the face of global threats. Clearly, he is just as terrified of his own left-wing MPs as Sir Keir Starmer was. Starmer wasted two years avoiding tackling the giant welfare bill. READ MORE FROM THE SUN SAYS Burnham looks set to do the same on defence — kicking the tough choices needed to get to three per cent of GDP on military spending until NEXT SUMMER. Yesterday’s debacle also included a renewed vow to spend billions on giving away the Chagos Islands, despite the cash coming from MoD budgets. How depressing. And how very familiar. Narrow escape THE Prime Minister got into a huge mess this summer over the early release of two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper. Most read in The Sun Today, The Sun reveals exactly why one of them, Albert Bowers, should NEVER have been considered. Prison records show he was listed as a “sex offender”, remains a danger to female prison officers, is a racist, and is so violent he is housed at maximum- security jail HMP Frankland alongside terrorists and murderers. It raises a terrifying question: if a sick lowlife like Bowers was almost let out, who ELSE is being freed on to our streets? Labour’s dangerous early prison release is putting the public at massive risk. Flightmare AFTER three massive shutdowns in as many years causing misery and delays for tens of thousands of travellers, the Government says it STILL has confidence in the boss of Britain’s air traffic control. Airline chiefs who have lost millions in the latest debacle are furious that Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has backed NATS boss Martin Rolfe. So far, she seems happy that £1.5million-a-year Rolfe is the right man to ensure this will never happen again, despite it already having happened again and again on his watch. Incredibly, Rolfe still seems to have friends in high places. Yet his passengers can’t get off the ground. Comment now