Burnham will not back UK industry
By johnredwood on June 20, 2026
Andy Burnham's ramblings before and after election are designed to create warm feelings. They are not thought through policy or a working plan to change government.
He says former industrial areas have been neglected, their voices un heard. The truth is far worse than that. His political chum Ed Miliband has intensified the attack on UK industry and production by going for extreme net zero policies that shut our factories, wells and furnaces and make us depend on imports. Kemi Badenoch has set out how to alter this, and helped the Conservative candidate help win the Aberdeen South by election on policies that could start to reverse the precipitate industrial and energy decline.
A government that is serious about backing UK industry needs to
- Lift the ban on new oil and gas wells imposed by this government
- Lift the ban on making petrol and diesel cars, brought forward to 2030 by this government
- Abandon this government's plan to link us into the EU carbon tax and emissions scheme, which means dearer energy
- Abolish the UK carbon tax imposed by the last government, and the windfall tax on oil and gas introduced by the last government and increased by this.
- Abandon plans to introduce a carbon border levy or tariff
- Reach agreement with the Chinese over the future of Scunthorpe steel
- Arrange for new gas fired power stations to restore self sufficiency in electricity
- Accelerate development of smaller nuclear plants to replace the losses from closures of old nuclear
- Install new reservoirs to meet demands from the expanded population, and the needs of data centres, overcoming big planning delays
- Repeal most of this government's employee rights legislation
- Cut National Insurance and Business rates, taxes on jobs, paid for by benefit reductions
I cannot see Burnham doing these things if he does manage to become Prime Minister.
The future of Reform June 21, 2026 76 Comments Knowing the interest and support for Reform many of you show I thought I would do one of my rare pieces on an Opposition party, as they have been much in the news in recent weeks.
I did not expect Reform to win the Makerfield by election, and agree with Richard Tice who said that some Reform voters voted Labour just to get rid of the PM. The same was true for some Conservative voters.
There have been five by elections this Parliament. One was won by each of the Conservatives, Reform and Greens, and one each stayed with Labour and the SNP. The Labour hold was of course a Burnham gain in the unusual circumstances of a main party candidate running against their party’s own leader and policies! We should regard Makerfield as a one off, where Burnham got a huge vote unrelated to the unpopularity of his party and of the government he is meant to support.
Reform’s performance in the other two by elections on Thursday was poor. They did not take enough votes off the Conservatives to stop a convincing Conservative win in Aberdeen, though replacing Conservatives is their stated aim. They made a bit of progress in Arbroath but fell well short of the SNP. The Conservatives also added to their vote and came above Reform in votes cast. The two combined still fell a little short of the SNP total, so the Reform vote did not lose the Conservatives the seat on this occasion.
Reform has made better progress in some Councils. Its national equivalent vote share peaked in its good performance in May 2025 at 32%, and was 5% lower in May 2026. The Council and by election votes this year show Reform peaked last year and are currently in decline.
Reform’s main asset is Nigel Farage, a talented political campaigner. He has mainly succeeded in getting across to UK voters and politicians the unacceptable levels of illegal migration, and the adverse consequences of rapid legal migration. This has led to a big Conservative rethink and apology for too much legal migration in the last Parliament, and policy change before the Conservatives left office which is now reducing numbers substantially. It has also led Labour to offer to smash the gangs and to try to control illegals, so far with very limited results.
Reform’s main weakness is the lack of thought through policy to mend the UK economy and boost jobs and incomes in the way many voters want. Populism based on plenty of expensive polling leads Reform to U turns, a lack of detail and a muddle with a mixture of socialist proposals that will not work and other more sensible measures. Reform’s large bank tax – paying no interest on reserves- would likely lead to recessionary conditions, hitting bank credit and loans. Their repeal of their big tax cuts package of 2024 leaves business and investors in the dark about what they might do if they got influence in government. Their flirtation with abolition of the two child cap on benefits left them in a weak position on benefit reform. Their failure to reduce any total budget in the Councils they took over in May 2025 has left their UK Doge chain saw project with no petrol in the saw. They fail to start with thought through achievable spending reductions and flirt with ruinously expensive nationalisation plans. They then lack any fiscal space to cut taxes.
The other problem they have is their inability to get on with each other. The fall out between Reform and Rupert Lowe is costing them, with a rival tougher anti immigration party now cutting into their vote on their core proposition. Mr Yousef does not look best pleased about the arrival and role of Mr Jenrick and some think Ms Braverman’s past failure as Home Secretary to get control of the borders is a weakness for their party. In Gorton they tried one of their ablest members, Matt Goodwin, who lost to the Greens. In Makerfield they chose a local candidate who had alienated some women who lost to Burnham.
Reform speaks little about Brexit these days as they try to woo Remain voters. Their predecessor party UKIP of course did not secure the referendum to get us out as some try to claim. Conservative MPs led the charge for a referendum in the 2010-15 Parliament . We got 111 votes for our referendum motion in 2011, and 130 votes for our attempted amendment to the Queen’s speech in 2013 to have a referendum bill. It was when I and a few others reported to David Cameron that we had half the Conservative party in rebel support of an EU referendum that he announced he would put one in the Manifesto for next time. UKIP did not come into that discussion. The whole Conservative party then backed a private members Bill to hold an EU referendum with 304 largely Conservative MPs voting for it, only for it to be blocked in the Lords.After winning the 2015 election the Conservative party honoured its promise and delivered a referendum. Only one UKIP MP was elected in 2015. It needed Conservative votes in the Commons to build pressure for the vote and to persuade the PM to turn a rebel cause into a central Conservative party cause and promise.
Addition:
Reform supporters replying to this want to rehearse all the criticisms of the last Conservative government instead of talking about their party. This site gave plenty of space to criticising the last government for four years of its tenure and voters gave their judgement. There is no need to repeat all that. The new Conservative Leader has changed the party and admitted the mistakes. The unwillingness of Reform backers to discuss their party and to debate their current policies reflects another Reform weakness. It is not set up as a democratic party where members can demand change and can vote out leaders like a normal party.