Andy Burnham does womaning better than women- or something

[Cantunseeit]

Not sure what can be said about this other than the Labour Party’s women problem doesn’t seem to be improving.

Andy Burnham may care about the issues women care about (stereotyping much?) but he was also Secretary of State for Health in 2009/2010 when the NHS was busy implementing self-ID by stealth across the UK’s NHS Trusts. I’d say he has some questions to answer.

<a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/2026.06.25-192142/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/25/gender-obsessed-labour-labelled-burnham-woman/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://archive.ph/2026.06.25-192142/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/25/gender-obsessed-labour-labelled-burnham-woman/

Are we taking bets on Andy becoming the first TW prime minister? Nothing would actually surprise me.

The actual quote is an absolute gem. Wish I could say I'm surprised, but I'm acquainted with a startling number of Labourites who display a complete lack of awareness about their own sexism whilst smugly regurgitating superficialities from the last EDI course they did.

Here it is:
‘The reason Labour have always craved, but also been cautious about, a female leader is because, in a Labour government, she could have an unashamedly female agenda, focused on health, education, family finances and issues like safer streets, social care, online safety for kids, that are disproportionately important to women. [This would be] unlike the Tories’ female leaders, who are under internal pressure – and the weight of history – to show how tough they are on traditionally male issues. Along comes Andy, surrounded by female advisers and backers, but more importantly, genuinely passionate about all those traditionally female-oriented issues, and much less so with the bombs and budgets. So could we finally see what Labour has failed to deliver all these years – a female PM in all but sex?’

Taken from Shipman's Spectator article.

I'm a woman and I'm definitely interested in bombs and budgets. We need a robust defence policy and military in place Otherwise we will become prey to the next big military power who fancies a go. Any woman who has been harassed by a man will tell you that you need to be on your guard at all times. Something these manly men aren't aware of.

And the usual excuses as to why the Tories have no problem with women leaders - because they have to behave like men and pretend to like manly things. They really are welded to gender stereotypes!

WTF? So he’s northern and a woman? Is he also black and disabled? Truly insane comment. I too would like this senior Labour figure named and shamed (and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were AB himself).

Don’t know about the women aren’t interested in bombs and budgets. The only cabinet position I ever secretly fancied was Chancellor of the Exchequer. I’m clearly not getting this woman thing right.

Hear hear

Please let Kemi address this at PMQs, please please please. It's an open goal for her surely?

Maybe the person that uttered this absolute sexist drivel actually wants Burnham to fail and it's all very Machiavellian. Though that might be crediting them with more intelligence than they deserve.

I don't know much about AB and wondered about the woman question. It was noticeable that:
When he got on The Train To London, he had women carrying his gubbins.
When he was sworn in, he had two women sponsors.
When he took the selfie, he had women front-and-centre.

I was wondering if they were at the heart of his political machinery or just handmaidens. It is looking suspiciously like they are merely handy photographic props and AB can do all the womanning himself.
Time will tell.

She's already tweeted that Labour still don't know what a woman is!

Yep. The defence plan and budgets might not be for Labour men. Especially those who didn’t resign over it. And who wants more borrowing and spending, Labour men again. It’s not us with the fluffy heads.

It truly is tragicomic. The Tories' idea of an exceptional woman is Margaret Thatcher; Lab's female Messiah is Andy Burnham.

Leaving aside ideology (and the truly ambitious seem to find this easy enough), If I had any political ambition I think I'd bet on my talent getting me recognised as an exception to the general rule that women are inferior rather than hoping that Lab might consider my qualities as an individual instead of treating me simply as an exemplar of an identity category.

The majority of women are interested in budgets, it's how the bills are paid and the children are fed. Most men aren't interested in household budgets and if you can't do something on a smaller scale such as household then you damn well can't be decent at doing it on a grand scale such as county, nevermind country wide. Men might be interested in bombs as a toy but again, the majority of women are interested in defence. Defence of their children, their home, their friends and family which radiates out into protecting their country. Men like BOOM, women like safety and security.

What a load of dross (and inaccuracy).

Without having seen the pictures, it sounds very much like the Tour de France where the male winner stands on a podium and has two female beauties at either side of him clapping.

That's so offensive to the serious women activists that Burnham has worked with. I know strong effective women who've been impressed by his ability to work collaboratively with different partners, both in homelessness and neurodiversity in the North West. Calling his advisers the equivalent of a podium girl is pretty sexist.

@idlewilder - it’s a Labour spokesperson who said that women weren’t interested in defence or financial policy.

And your example does nothing to disprove this! To refute the point you should have mentioned women who possess sound economic reasoning and ability.

Even the Tour de France has managed to change that.

Since 2020 it's one man and one woman and no kissy-kissy on the podium.

Margaret Thatcher appealed to women by saying that the household economy was like the state economy. Nonsense for many reasons, amongst them that the government can print money and at that time could set the interest rates.

(posting this on a few different threads for traffic)

Burnham creates Reddit account to hold 'ask me anything' session

https://news.sky.com/story/politics-latest-burnham-starmer-labour-tories-badenoch-farage-12593360

PM-in-waiting Andy Burnham will hold an "ask me anything" session on Reddit tomorrow as he seeks to share more about his vision with voters.

The Makerfield MP created his account two days ago, and posted a video on the very active "politics" subreddit asking for users to submit questions before the session at 5pm tomorrow. [Friday, 3 July 2026]

Might still be time to ask him about the Conversion Bill?

If his AMA is anything like the occasional visits to Mumsnet by politicians it'll consist of slow typing uninformative answers, and the mods will stop anything 'controversial' being asked about Genderism.

Did anyone watch the Owen Jones podcast a few weeks ago (before the by election) where OJ’s guest suggested that Angela Rayner could perhaps take over from Starmer until Burnham was able to get into Parliament and take over from her. OJ just nodded along. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing.