Nigel Farage could be the next prime minister – but Labour could beat him by connecting with voters more, Greater Manchester’s Labour mayor has told Sky News.
Andy Burnham, talking to Beth Rigby on the Electoral Dysfunction podcast, said the Reform UK leader winning the next election “is in the realms of possibility”.
“But we’ve got to make sure that it doesn’t become a reality,” he said.
“I don’t ever demonstrate complacency as a politician, I will always say it like it is.
“He’s connected with people, maybe not everybody, but he’s connected.”
Asked if he thinks Labour are not connecting with voters at the moment, he said he does not think his party is speaking enough about “working class ambition”.
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Mr Burnham said there are “hundreds of thousands” of people in Greater Manchester who are being “held back by their housing situation”.
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He said previous generations would have had council housing to “propel them to do amazing things” and if the government can follow up with its promise to build 1.5 million homes “they will really connect with people”.
The mayor said his party has not “spoken properly for quite some time now” to young people and their parents who want alternatives to the university route.
He said Labour has only seemed to care “in some people’s minds” about the university route, which “leaves a disconnect”.
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To really come up strong against Mr Farage, Mr Burnham said Labour have “got to really speak to that working class ambition”.
He added: “I think Starmer has got to respond to the changing world that we’re in.”
