While Andy Burnham was filming another social media video, a fresh crisis was erupting. The prime minister could be seen in a kitchen, wearing a black shirt and clutching a bread roll, or as he said, “a barm and no one could tell me otherwise,” while 60,000 migrants stormed the Spanish North African enclave of Ceuta from Morocco in an unprecedented cross-border invasion.
A Leader Out of Touch
This is the stock-in-trade of a leader who talks in clichés and drops song lyrics into conversations. He is the Alan Partridge of politics. In the fortnight since he forced himself into No 10, he has tackled the big issues, like rating the best bar snacks in a debate over scampi fries and pork scratchings.
His latest offering, in which he cares more about baps than borders, says it all. In every utterance, unelected Burnham - the Messiah without a Mandate - appears to promise a new Jerusalem among Britain’s dark satanic mills. It’s hoodwinking many, but he has failed to address the one issue dominating British, European, and global politics.
No Plan for the Migrant Crisis
Burnham, just like the man he ousted, has no idea how to stop the flood of illegal migrants crossing the English Channel. Why? Because Labour and ideologues on the Left love open borders. When Tony Blair welcomed the world here, it started an unsustainable migrant boom that conspired to deliver the Brexit vote.
Despite the clear and present danger, nothing has been done to stop the emergency. In 2015, former Chancellor Angela Merkel opened the door to more than 1m refugees fleeing the Syrian civil war, sparking a migrant crisis from which the Continent has never recovered. More than a decade later, she told those who settled in Germany to vote against politicians who want to stop others from following in their footsteps.
Ms Merkel said: “Whether a German citizen has been a German citizen for two years or for four days, or the entire family for three generations, it doesn't matter. We are the German people. We must also stick together when we have to take action against people who have completely different ideas about our future.”
Failed Policies and Porous Borders
Labour campaigned on a manifesto pledge to scrap the Conservatives’ Rwanda deportation scheme. In its first act after winning the General Election in 2024, Keir Starmer declared the "gimmick" "dead and buried". But small boats continue to cross the English Channel, exposing our porous borders and impotence in fixing them.
Several petrified EU nations want to enact versions of the Rwanda scheme, which would deport migrants to a third country. Just like Blair 25 years ago, Labour under Burnham has no intention of addressing the crisis. It is pathetic, and it is why many will rally to Nigel Farage's call to deploy the Royal Navy to patrol our waters.
While that might sound extreme (and perhaps contrary to international law), what other serious suggestions do we have to halt an emergency that continues to line the pockets of organised criminals, endanger the lives of those attempting the crossings, and enrage a public that sees our impotent officials fail at every turn? We are surrounded by water - a moat - yet our borders are as porous as a sieve.
The push into Ceuta during a chaotic 48-hour period overwhelmed local infrastructure, with arrivals representing about 70% of the resident population. But Burnham, still clutching his roll, was more interested in dough, saying: “Some people might call it a cob, a bap, or a batch…a stottie? What makes sense in one place clearly doesn’t necessarily make sense in another.”
He doesn’t much care about Britain’s borders because for the rest of the Left, immigration - illegal or otherwise - is the bread of heaven.
