Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham paid a visit to an Altrincham school – and confirmed he was considering standing to be mayor of Greater Manchester.
The Leigh MP and former Labour leadership candidate spoke to over 120 sixth form students at Loreto Grammar School after answering a personal request from A Level politics student Julia Morton.
In a wide-ranging question and answer session to politics students from Loreto and St Ambrose College in Hale Barns, as well as other sixth formers and staff, Burnham said: “This country is increasingly divided into the haves and the have nots and the North has been playing second fiddle for far too long. The new role of Mayor of Greater Manchester would give the North a new voice and it is something that I find very interesting.”
Burnham told the students about his marathon battle to support the families of those who died at Hillsborough, a task that has occupied all of his 15 years in Parliament.
He said: “There does need to be accountability. Perhaps less so for what caused the tragedy; mistakes happen and no one is saying that the officers on the ground intended what happened; but for the cover up. That was the crime, a calculated attempt to hide the truth which was perpetuated for 27 years.”
The 46-year-old Merseysider was asked a succession of questions on the EU referendum.
Explaining his pro-European stance, he said: “Xenophobia is at the heart of the Brexit campaign. After the 1929 Wall Street crash there was a search for a scapegoat, which found it most vile form in the vilification of the Jews in Nazis Germany. Now after the fall of Lehman Brothers Bank and the stock market crash which started in 2008 we can see similar problems. Look at Donald Trump and how he regards the Muslims.
“The older generation, who have their holiday houses in Southern Spain and have enjoyed all the benefits of being in Europe, are now trying to pull the plug for your generation. This decision will effect you more than other part of our society and I really believe that the voting age for the referendum should be 16.”
Julia Morton, 16, from Sale, who approached Mr Burnham at a netball game, said: “We have a very politically active Sixth Form at Loreto as they do at St Ambrose and I knew we would all love to hear him speak. He said he’d be delighted, gave me his email and here he is today. We all thought he was brilliant.”
Sarah Millington, Loreto Grammar School’s head of politics, said: “I was very impressed by the range of complexity of the questions put by the students and the honesty of Mr Burnham’s answers. Far from there being a general apathy, I have found that young people are increasingly interested in politics and want to listen to as many opinions as possible and it was wonderful to have such a major figure come and speak.”
