Britain is broken now - we cannot wait 10 years for Andy Burnham's plan

The soon-to-be Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, gave a speech and set out a 10-year plan for Britain.

Reform UK Member of Parliament for Ashfield, Lee Anderson

The problem is, Britain doesn't have 10 years.

Britain is broken now, the country needs to be saved now.

Only radical change at pace is going to fix this country and yet the incoming Prime Minister is talking about the next 10 years.

It appears he's taken a leaf out of Keir Starmer's playbook – all talk, no action.

His plan to establish a 'Number 10 North' in Manchester, at first glance, appears to be an expensive gimmick that will cost taxpayers a lot of money.

More concerningly, Burnham's speech seemed to be a lot of words for no actual concrete changes.

Devolution can work if done correctly, but the big national issues that people want to be solved will not be solved by devolution.

Nevertheless, we've still heard nothing of how he plans to pay for Number 10 North and neither have we heard how he plans to plug the £15 billion black hole in the defence budget ironically left by his predecessor, Keir Starmer.

I note that Starmer has attempted to fill a small portion of the spending gap by cancelling a number of major transport projects, including the axing of planned improvements to the A38 and A46 Newark Bypass and the electrification of the Maid Marian Line.

That's now well over £2 billion that the East Midlands has lost in committed transport investment in the 12 months since the Spending Review.

Meanwhile, the answer on how to fund defence spending is hanging right in front of Burnham's face – cut the bloated benefits bill, deport all illegal migrants and end net zero, but of course we've heard nothing on his plans to tackle these issues.

Therefore, the only inference from this that my constituents in Ashfield will be able to make is that Andy Burnham doesn't care about those issues that are most important to them.

Speaking of, during Prime Minister's Questions this week I was selected to ask Keir Starmer a question.

In my question I raised the case of Sheraz Malik, an illegal migrant who was living in an HMO on Bath Street in Sutton, who then went on to rape a vulnerable woman on Sutton Lawn last summer.

This despicable creature was recently sentenced to 14 years in prison.

I asked the Prime Minister, that if he was serious about the protection of women and girls, then did he agree with Reform UK and I that every single illegal migrant coming to this country should be detained, barred from claiming asylum and deported.

I thought that since he had already given notice of his resignation that he would this time give me a proper, honest answer.

But I was mistaken.

Once again, Starmer resorted to whataboutery and failed to answer the question, not even sharing a single word of sorrow for the victim of the rape in Sutton.

He should resign now and save us the wait.