Burnham must be ‘selective’ in conference speech, says key ally

LIVERPOOL, England — Andy Burnham must be “selective” in the story he tells when he delivers his first conference speech as prime minister and Labour leader later this week, one of his closest allies said Sunday.

In an interview in The POLITICO Pub, Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool City Region, said he’s seen a draft of Burnham’s speech, which he’ll deliver to Labour members Tuesday afternoon.

“He’s going to have to be selective about the types of things that he wants to outline as a way forward,” Rotheram said, adding “there’s no way that in that one hour you can encapsulate everything that you want to talk about.”

Rotheram said what the public will see is “somebody who will articulate their values and principles, and put them into a context of policy decisions that he will either announce or we will announce in the future around types of things that need to be done first.” 

The Liverpool mayor, who has run the city since 2017, praised Burnham’s opening weeks as prime minister for creating “lots of good news for us as Labour politicians to go out and campaign about.”