Cliveden House burnt down in 1849. The architect behind Parliament rebuilt it in two years. Now, Parliament has spent over a decade just planning its own repairs. What happened to the country that built things? 👇

This is the third time in three PMQs that Andy Burnham has had to correct what he’s said afterwards. This is now a recurring pattern where the PM spends all his time fixing his own gaffes, instead of sorting out welfare or finding the money to defend our country.

The busiest job in Westminster is running after the PM with a dustpan and brush, sweeping up whatever he said five minutes earlier. Implying the 2016 referendum was illegitimate, until the entire govt comms machine scrambled to clarify what he said. Opening up a Scottish referendum, which his team had to shut down. Telling the WASPI women they deserved recompense, only to backtrack. Burnham is all over the place, making statements he clearly hasn’t thought through.

Andy Burnham wants to take Britain back to the 1970s, a time of more government control, more trade union control and no economic growth. There is a reason our country took a different course after that decade. Nothing Burnham announced today will do anything to fix Britain’s long-term problems. He had no plan to fix our stagnant economy. No plan to fund defence. No plan to sort out the spiralling welfare bill, beyond more government schemes. His proposal to change the triple lock is already falling apart under scrutiny, and it won’t generate enough savings to fund a nationalised care system for another two decades, which means more tax rises are inevitable. Britain does not need to recreate the politics of the 1970s. It needs a government prepared to take the difficult decisions, back those who work and build businesses, and look confidently to the future.