Over the weekend Andy Burnham’s leadership campaign received a much needed boost from the founder of the Milifandom Abby Tomlinson. The 17-year-old declared that after meeting with each of the leadership contenders, it was Burnham rather than Jeremy Corbyn who she would be backing for Labour leader:
‘I have decided that I am going to be voting for Andy Burnham. I have a number of reasons for making this decision and not enough space for them all, so I’ll try and explain a few important ones. It was at the hustings I attended in Warrington that I realised something. Before that Saturday, none of the candidates had really inspired me.
As someone who was prompted to join the party after being inspired, I didn’t feel any of them could do what Miliband had done and give me that fundamental drive that things needed to change. However, at those hustings, the only candidate who really spurred on that drive was Burnham.’
She has since gone on to write a blog for the Huffington Post, defending Burnham from critics who were left angry when he abstained from voting on the welfare bill. However, while Tomlinson admits that there was ‘not enough space’ in the original piece to list all her reasons for picking Burnham, Mr S wonders if she should have at least found room for a disclaimer.
In this week’s Private Eye, there is an item suggesting that Tomlinson’s close links with a member of the Burnham family could have impacted her decision. It turns out that her school headmaster is none other than Burnham’s brother Nick:
‘Burnham has been described as “Ed Miliband with a northern accent”; but the A-level student may have found inspiration a little closer to home. Her headmaster is none other than one Nick Burnham, elder brother of Andy.’
On further inspection, it turns out that the Labour MP even visited the school last year to conduct a Q&A with pupils. Nick Burnham certainly appears to be happy about Abby’s endorsement for his brother, retweeting a link to the article:
So, is this a Burnham conspiracy that will only serve to give the Corbynistas more ammunition in terms of media bias or simply a harmless link Tomlinson forgot to mention? While Mr S has reached out to Tomlinson for clarification, for now Steerpike is going to give her the benefit of doubt.
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