Andy Burnham turns down Taylor Swift to visit Blackpool for Labour's manifesto launch

Andy Burnham visited Blackpool on the evening of Labour’s manifesto launch on June 13.

He was there to support Labour candidates Chris Webb for Blackpool South and Lorraine Beavers for Blackpool North and Fleetwood at a campaign rally at the Sheraton Hotel.  

Burnham said he was ‘returning to the scene of the crime’ but explained: “I’m not talking about something the MP before Chris did.”

He was referring to his charity turn on Strictly Come Dancing at the Empress Ballroom in April. 

Burnham said he was offered tickets for Taylor Swift at Anfield instead of being at the Sheraton, but he'd rather be in Blackpool.

"I'm so much happier here,” he said.

Recalling some of Blackpool’s ‘great double acts’ he said we’ve had Little and Large, Cannon and Ball and now ‘Beavers and Webb’.

“What a partnership these two are going to be - formidable. Both of them, proper fighters for their communities, fighters for social justice,” he said.

“Blackpool is going to have the most formidable partnership in the House of Commons if we can get them elected.”

Introducing Burnham, Webb spoke about Labour’s new manifesto and the importance of young people voting in this election:

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He said: “The younger generations have suffered hugely because of Covid and what the Conservatives have done to take away their opportunities.

“They’ve seen politicians laughing at them and having parties and they’ve lost their childhoods – stuck at home waiting to hear if an algorithm is going to let them go to university, not their achievements, their skills or their hard work. 

“They’re looking to candidates like myself now for change and that hope.”

He added: “We’ve seen it in some of our areas where we have Labour mayors like Andy Burnham, showing what Labour can do with the values that we have.

“And we need that here in Lancashire. We need metro mayors right across the country. We need to devolve that power from a handful of people in Whitehall to communities that know what they need. 

“We can see that radical change in this manifesto. It’s about how we can devolve power away from the powerful and place it in towns like Blackpool, back in the hands of local residents.”

Speaking about the Labour manifesto, Burnham said “these are times to feel hopeful”.

He added: “It’s been hard to feel hopeful in the times that we've been through.

“These have been dark times when everything has felt broken, but there is now light at the end of the tunnel.

“The finishing line is there, we've just got to get over it.”

On the Conservative manifesto released earlier this week, Burnham said: “They [the Conservatives] promised £17bn worth of tax cuts, as ever for the better off, and how are they going to pay for that?

“One thing that they clearly spelled out was through £12bn of cuts from benefits. Think about that for a second. We've already got the benefit cap - in Greater Manchester that's made thousands of families homeless. There’s been the two child rule and the bedroom tax, that’s what we’ve already got, and they want to cut it by a further £12bn. 

“What will that mean for disabled people? They will be fearful these next three weeks that somehow these Tories will get over the line. What will it do to Blackpool, to Greater Manchester, to see £12bn further taken out of the benefits system?

“We all thought food banks would be here for a few years but look at us, 14 years on – we've had to build a voluntary welfare state across the North West because of what these people have done… we must get them out because people's lives out there depend upon it.

“They cannot possibly have more of this and we owe it to them to fight with everything we can to get them out. Don't let them do it to people.” 

Burnham closed by saying: “This should be a three or a four term Labour government to put this country back on its feet and we will put it back on its feet.

“We did it last time when we were in government. We did great things. We didn't get everything right but it was a case of Education, Education, Education. The NHS improved. We left behind a full neighbourhood policing structure that the Conservatives dismantled.

“This country was in so much better shape. Surestart. Minimum wage. Think of the things that we did. And there are brilliant commitments in the new manifesto. About a New Deal for Working People. A higher wage for carers.

“This is our moment. This is our chance. Vote them out. Get Labour in. And let’s get our country back.”