Why I’m backing Andy Burnham for leader

By Manuel Padovan / @MannyPadovan

From the later part of my childhood, through my teens and into my early twenties, I relied on a Labour government. They rebuilt my local schools, they gave me the opportunity of attending college and then university. Labour made great strides to reduce inequalities in all of our communities. Now in opposition we are at the forefront of the battle to stop the privatisation of NHS services and the savage cuts to our public services. Labour is the only party that can effectively stand up to these immoral cutbacks.

This is why I finally joined the party last week: to join the fight for Labour’s return to government.

There is only one leadership candidate truly able to take the fight to a government of millionaires with genuine understanding and support from Labour members. Andy Burnham’s campaign to lead the Labour party represents a fresh, clean break from Westminster-centric politics. He has already hit the ground running by basing his campaign in Manchester’s Northern Quarter and by inspiring a revival of the party from the grassroots level. He understands the public’s need for open and honest politics and has called for a break with the “factionalism and self-indulgence” which he said left the party “dangerously disconnected from the public”.

Andy Burnham’s manifesto isn’t that he’s a northerner, or the details of his background, but that he wants to exhume our socialist roots and lead under a banner of Aspirational Socialism; a combination of new and old Labour, values and ambition. Andy is a hardworking, humble and honest person. He wants to lead Labour in these hard times, to fight for the things that you, me and anybody else interested in a fair, equal and tolerant society want to see preserved and enhanced.

His isn’t a campaign of platitudes; it’s grounded in good, honest ideas. That’s why I’m backing Burnham. Join the party and be part of it.