Nigel Farage has said Andy Burnham is going after the north of England and there will be a ‘great pitch battle between our two parties.’
Speaking on GB News he said: “If it’s a Burnham bounce, he should call a general election now because this is probably as good as it’ll ever get for him.
“He has said explicitly more than one time he wants to make the biggest change in politics in 40 years. That is not the 2024 Labour manifesto. This man has no mandate whatsoever.
“I mean, it’s even dubious that he should be prime minister, and I say that because I think the public is sick of this game of musical chairs. Internal parties making their own decisions, the public not involved anywhere.
“Well, it’s bad enough on the same government platform. If this is the most radical thing we’ve seen in 40 years, there must be an election.
“I said vote Reform [to get Starmer] – that’s why he won as convincingly as he did. I mean, fine, good for him, but does that change the overall culture? Well, I’m not sure it does.
“And clearly, looking at the cabinet, he’s going for the north of England. He realises under Starmer, the north of England was lost to Reform in a very dramatic
way, and that’s going to be the great pitch battle between our two parties.
“Reindustrialisation? Really? Are you telling me Mr Burnham, with the highest energy prices in the world, and you committed to net zero, that we’re going to have reindustrialisation? Because I can promise you, it isn’t going to happen.
“Bus fares are three quid. The Tories put them to two quid. Labour put them to three quid, and now it’s back to two. It’s Tweedledum and Tweedledee. It’s the Uni Party playing a crazy game.
“At the end of the day, these are mere gestures. They are very small on the Richter scale of what is worrying people. And you know, you talk about today dingies have crossed the English Channel. I haven’t heard Mr Burnham talk once, either in the Makerfield campaign or now, about what he is going to do to stop dangerous young men entering our country? And I suspect the answer is nothing.
“He’s trying to use our language. What solution is he offering? Under him the HMOs will go up, not down. Arguably HMOs are worse because they’re on a street near you. They’re literally being put in the middle of residential areas.
“And that’s not to even start on crime. As not a week goes by, we don’t hear of a very serious court case of somebody who’s illegally who’s committed murder, rape, you name it.
“If I’d said to you six years ago, only 25,000 young men in the first nine months of this year, you’d have said, What are you talking about? I mean, the whole thing is unimaginable.
“[Shabana Mahmood] said some great things when she first took the job, but everything’s being watered down. Everything’s been watered down because the backbenchers of the Labour Party simply won’t stick it.
“And the really big one for her was indefinite leave to remain. Now she picked up on a big statement that Zia and I had made to say the ‘Boriswave’ should not automatically get indefinite leave to remain.
“Now she talked about kicking the can down the road and it being 10 years till they got it, not the five years that we’re coming up to now. Whatever she feels in her heart on this, I don’t think her parliamentary party will allow her to do it.
“86% of households are heated by oil or gas, and they are not part of this saving [on VAT]. So come on, look at the numbers. It’s the heating bills more than anything that really particularly worry the elderly, and those are on very, very low incomes.
“However ironic that as a European Union members, we weren’t allowed to reduce anything below the 5%. So it’s a Brexit benefit, but it’s a very small one.
“I just don’t know what he’s going to do, but you know he’s. I repeat the point: the biggest change in politics in 40 years. This man has no mandate. There should be a general election. There needs to be a general election.
“I’m astonished that neither the Lib Dems nor the Conservative Party can see that point and want one. I think the public increasingly do, and alright, you know, polling can move around rapidly, but a pretty clear majority of people think an election should happen.
“Do you know what’s funny? Prime ministers coming in and talking about 10-year plans when he’s the seventh in 10 years.
“[I would] build more prisons. It’s all well and good criticising the Labour Party for early releases. The Conservatives released 160,000 prisoners early. Our population’s risen by about 11, 12 million, mostly through migration over the last two decades, and our prison places have increased by a few 100.
“Sorry, we either have to clear the prisons out of the 10,000 foreign nationals that are there by deporting them. That’s one quick option that we could exercise.
“I’ll take that trade [of British prisoners overseas] every day of the week. Every day of the week, I will take that trade. Yeah, we’ll take back British people that have committed crimes in Sudan or wherever it is.
“I just think that release scheme is an insult.
“I’ve been annoyed, but I’ve got every right to be annoyed.”
Commenting on the murder of Ann Widdecombe, he said:
“[Ann Widdecombe] was actually on television and radio that very day defending me. She’d done two interviews defending me and was about to do a third. So, in the middle of defending me, this happens to her.
“I’m utterly appalled, obviously. You know, 21 hammer blows to the head. I mean, the whole thing is just unbelievable.
“The man that’s been charged has appeared on murder charges, but I know the counterterrorism are digging much deeper into what motives might have been, and I’m not going to say anything publicly at this time. But there is a lot more to come out.”