Politics is not fair. I thought that Andy Burnham’s position on the Welfare Bill was perfectly reasonable: he made it clear that a Burnham-led Labour party would have opposed the Bill, but demonstrated the loyalty that he will expect from his own frontbenchers. In any case, his position was identical to that adopted by Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall, although both made less noise about it.
But I don’t decide who wins the Labour leadership election. The Welfare Bill has delivered a body blow to the Burnham campaign: from in a close race for first place in local party nominations, a strong second place in both public and private polls, to a struggle not to finish third behind Cooper. A private poll, leaked to the Mirror, shows Burnham slipping to third place. “Andy’s lost, hasn’t he?” was the message from one Labour insider late last night.
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