Andy Burnham says 'we need to start demanding a…

Andy Burnham says 'we need to start demanding a General Election' as he slams Prime Minister candidates for 'abandoning' levelling up

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has said 'we need to start demanding a General Election' after the Conservative leadership race ends.

The Labour politician tweeted out his call for the snap election early on Wednesday morning, July 13, alongside a screenshot of the Daily Telegraph's front page, which led with the headline "I will run the economy like Thatcher if I win, says Sunak". He also appeared on Sky News earlier in the day to call the race a "farcical" leadership contest - with all candidates not addressing the cost of living crisis or NHS services being on black alert.

Burnham's tweet read: "We need to start demanding a General Election at the end of this Tory leadership election. They were all elected on a manifesto promise to level up the North and are all abandoning it." The idea was explored during his appearance on Sky News with Kay Burley this morning, where he stated that a general election would be necessary at the end of the contest as the points each contender is standing for during the leadership bid would see levelling up "dead in the water".

Speaking to the programme, Burnham said: "They're in a comfort zone and they're not addressing the issues that are right there in front of the country. This person will walk into office and have to deal with from day one so this contest, I'm afraid, is not serious at the moment and all of them need to put aside the sort of gimmicks and the jibes at each other and set out how they will deal with the serious issues facing the country from day one.

"If I look at the policies of all of them, levelling up will be dead in the water at the end of this Tory leadership campaign, they're all talking about major tax cuts and a much smaller stage, it can't put that forward and then be serious about levelling up the country, levelling up the north of England, so I would say if that is where we end up at the end of this leadership election, there has to be a general election, because that is a major change from the manifesto on which all of these people were elected."

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The Tory leadership campaign heated up after frontrunner Rishi Sunak was targeted by supporters of his rivals, with the competition turning bitter ahead of the first round of voting. The former chancellor faced claims from supporters of rival Liz Truss that he implemented “economically damaging” policies while in No 11 and that his campaign has engaged in “dirty tricks” to manipulate the leadership contest.

Brexit Opportunities Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg and Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries, who are high-profile backers of Truss, led the attack on Mr Sunak’s campaign. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who abandoned his leadership bid to back Sunak, denied Dorries' claims, whilst Health Secretary Steve Barclay became the latest big-name backer for Sunak.

This afternoon, MPs will begin the voting process to determine the final two candidates to be the next prime minister. Anyone who fails to get 30 votes during the vote will be eliminated from the contest, with the last-placed candidate losing their place even if they get above that threshold. Sunak, Truss, Tom Tugendhat, Kemi Badenoch, Penny Mordaunt, Jeremy Hunt, Nadhim Zahawi and Suella Braverman will all be on the ballot.