Andy Burnham wants ‘all parts of the country…to play their part’. Not because we’re at war, or another pandemic is sweeping across the world. No. What the Prime Minister wants is for every town and village in the land to house ‘refugees and asylum seekers’– he believes it wouldn’t be fair if we ‘have a situation where it’s only the poorest communities in the country that receive all of the dispersal of refugees and asylum seekers’.
Burnham clearly dimly discerns that people don’t like having asylum seekers living near them but he also seems to view their presence in the country as unavoidable
Burnham’s remarks came in response to a question about the village of Piddington, where locals are opposing the government’s plans to house 1,250 ‘single adult male’ asylum seekers on a nearby former military base. Burnham insisted that ‘we understand people’s concerns’, but also admitted that ‘I don’t know the issue yet in detail but in some ways I understand it’s about creating secure space’. Yet again, it’s abundantly clear how unprepared Burnham is for the office he holds. The illegal migration crisis, and the asylum seeker crime wave, have been in the headlines for years. Did he not notice this when he was Manchester’s mayor? Did he not think about how he might respond to public anger? It seems not.
