If Keir Starmer employed a “Ming vase” strategy of ultra-caution to get into 10 Downing Street, Andy Burnham is peddling a unicycle across a tightrope while juggling gelignite.
The appalling murder and wrongful arrest of Henry Nowak is only the latest gale that threatens to blow Burnham disastrously off course. It seems crass to talk about the politics of this tragedy but Nigel Farage and Reform have made that impossible. As their Makerfield by-election candidate Robert Kenyon flounders, Reform have seen this as an opportunity to turbo-boost their campaign.
In a social media statement on Tuesday, Farage called for the public to respond with “pure, cold rage”, branding it an example of “anti-white prejudice”.
Farage followed up in the Commons saying that it was “clear to growing millions in this country that we’re living under two-tier policing”, saying this led to what he called “the anger that you saw spilling out in Southampton last night”.
Reform’s divisive rhetoric has been condemned not just by the Prime Minister and Kemi Badenoch. Even Rupert Lowe of Restore branded Reform’s attack adverts targeting the Tory leader as “misguided, ugly and offensive”.
