The mayor of Greater Manchester is the latest in a long line of politicians to try to show he’s on the right track … etc
Politicians, as we know, love a metaphor. But do they have to be so literal? No sooner had the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, announced that he wanted to run for parliament than … Look! Out he popped from his house on Friday morning in jogging gear, because he’s full of energy and on the right track and hitting the ground running and … oh, do keep up.
What is it that persuades a 56-year-old man who is leading every news bulletin in Britain and knows there is a throng of photographers outside to put on some terrible shorts and a 1980s Everton strip and expose his paunch and Lancashire tan to the world?
Could it be the certain knowledge that by mid afternoon the pictures would be dominating every major news site in the UK – including the Guardian – as feverish discussion continued over whether he could eventually depose Keir Starmer as prime minister? “Burnham off to a running start,” said the Times. Better than a PB.
Burnham, to be fair, is a regular runner who completed the Boston marathon in aid of the victims of the Manchester Arena bombing. No one could begrudge him taking a break from political scheming on Friday for a few minutes of sweaty lumbering alongside a Cheshire dual carriageway while being shouted at by members of the public.
