Victoria Derbyshire has branded Labour’s deputy leader “hypocritical” after she said Andy Burnham should not be called for a snap election, despite him demanding one when Liz Truss quit.
Lucy Powell demanded the country go to the polls after Truss stepped down as prime minister in October 2022, after just 49 days in office.
On Derbyshire’s BBC One Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg program this morning, Powell was reminded of a post she made on Facebook that day.
Derbyshire told her: “You wrote: ‘Let the public choose the next Prime Minister. General election now.” Do you want a general election now so the public can choose their next prime minister?”
Powell said: “I think we’ve been through special times since Liz Truss crashed the economy, making big decisions that had nothing to do with the Conservative manifesto.”
But Derbyshire told her: “The principle is the same. Let the public decide on the next Prime Minister,” you wrote. So this situation may apply now. Do you want the public to decide on the next Prime Minister now?
Changing tack, Powell said: “We live in a parliamentary democracy where the Prime Minister is chosen by members of Parliament.”
When the host pointed out that this is not what she said in 2022, Powell responded: “Then we had two prime ministers in less than two months, one of whom came and didn’t listen to anyone around him.
“The major institutions that support this country made some important decisions for which each of us paid a very, very high price: inflation went through the roof and our mortgage rates skyrocketed after a period of real turmoil.”
Derbyshire said: “So you don’t think there should be a general election now. Isn’t that hypocrisy?”
Powell replied: “No, I don’t think so, because I think people now want to see us continuing our work, delivering on the manifesto that got us elected just two years ago.”
Burnham is due to become prime minister on July 20, just a month after being elected MP for Makerfield.
Keir Starmer announced last Monday that he was resigning after losing the support of his MPs.
With no one else in the ring, Burnham will be installed as Labor leader at a special conference on July 17, and take office as prime minister three days later.
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