Mailwatch(ed) Forum

Apparently, Burnham’s already on borrowed time

Labour has been rising in the polls under Andy Burnham, partly at Reform’s expense. Some of the over-excited commentary in the wake of the Clacton by-election has suggested that Nigel Farage’s party has peaked. But we are not about to return to “politics as normal”. The fundamentals of British politics still favour Farage...

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/0 ... ur-reform/

...I have written before in these pages that Burnham should call a snap election as soon as possible. Labour is close to peaking under his new leadership and the window of opportunity to hold and win an election is closing.

In the next few weeks alone, there will be multiple opportunities for Reform to put Burnham on the back foot...

This wibble is brought to you courtesy of one James Frayne

James Frayne is a political strategist and a specialist in political opinion research. He has held senior roles in government, campaigns and in the corporate world. He founded the research agency Public First in 2016 and was previously director of communications at the Department for Education and director of strategy at the Policy Exchange think tank.

DfE? I can't be arsed to look up the details but I am assuming he is one of Gove's acolytes.