Jen Williams

Whether it's necessarily any more pronounced between Labour and Reform than it is nationally, it may be sort of roughly in line with it.

But I think what Labour have identified is something that they can pounce on in terms of his past remarks.

And I think you could see from the looks on those women's faces in the Question Time audience when Robert Kenyon was sort of pushed on what he had said previously and kind of didn't really make a very good fist of defending himself.

You know, those clips have been clipped up and sent around social media and amplified and amplified and amplified over the last...

week or so.

I think what's quite interesting, I think, about Andy Burnham and the risks that he's now going to be taking, I suppose...

is that as mayor, he has thrived off this idea that he's got outsider status.

So he has built his brand around the idea that he's gone up against the initially, particularly against the Conservative government.

But he's maintained that brand while Labour have been in power.

Right.

And and people have responded to that.

I think it's a large part of his popularity.

one of the things I've noticed and this is more probably from online comments than it is necessarily from talking to people in the street but I suspect it may be true in the street as well is that there may just be a little bit of a risk that that outsider status is just beginning to wear off a little bit because you know how do you maintain that in a circumstance like this when you are clearly the polished politician with the money well I say with the money but certainly with the machine behind you right that becomes harder again to maintain if you then go into number 10.

I think trust is just so low in all politics, right?

I mean, I've sat in on focus groups of people who are probably going to vote reform.

But if you ask them, do you think Nigel Farage will completely change the country?

They're really not very sure.

They're just kind of thinking, well, I don't know.

So there's a particular court case which has just been heard this week, which is bad timing for Andy Burnham.

And it's something that reform has immediately kind of weaponised against him, and you can completely see why.