Julia Hartley-Brewer

Well, Nigel Farage issued a statement on X saying just that.

But I mean, it's one point worth making.

They got 35% of the vote.

I mean, I don't think that's what most people would regard as a disappointing result in a by-election.

I mean, it was an extraordinarily big vote for Andy Burnham.

But bearing in mind that the two leading candidates, Andy Burnham and Rob Kenyon, for the reform were basically standing on exactly the same platform.

vote for me, get rid of Keir Starmer.

The thing about Andy Burnham was he was offering to do it rather sooner than Rob Kenyon could do.

I think genuinely, with all due respect to Daniel, who's regular on my show as well, I know him from media, it's a huge respect.

I think this is classic Westminster bubble, completely over-interpreting a vote which was clearly a

He talks normal.

He wears a T-shirt, not a tie.

Not sure that's going to go down very well in number 10 for a lot of voters.

He, you know, is a nice guy.

He's got charisma.

He's, you know, Andy Burnham, you know, he did a great job as a, you know, basically sort of waving the flag for the North, for Manchester in particular, obviously, during lockdown when the Westminster classes were forgetting how hard life was in all the various tiers and lockdowns for people.

outside London.

And there's loads of appeal there.

The thing everyone forgets is that he wasn't offering anything other than change.

Now, that's what Keir Starmer offered in 2024 in July that year.