Anthony Holman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Widowed Father to the wonderful Alex and James, Agile PM,Business Analyst,Software Developer,Loves Man Utd, Loves Life. My Moto ‘NEVER GIVE UP’ proudly British

[Carole Malone @thecarolemalone]

Unbelievable to see people celebrating the fact @AndyBurnhamGM could be our next PM. He was twice rejected for PM because he was so lack lustre.Nothing has changed in the past years 8 years which he has spent piddling around in local politics.Yet Labour sees him as its saviour!

[Dr Zoe Harcombe, PhD @zoeharcombe]

This is why I despise Andy Burnham and all politicians like him.
I want as small a state as possible.

[Kemi Badenoch @KemiBadenoch]

It is NOT ok to experiment on kids as young as 11 and make irreversible changes to their bodies.

We must protect children from dangerous ideology.

Conservatives will not just sit back and let this happen. I refuse to believe MPs, if given the chance, would let this continue. That is why we will force a vote, not just to pause this trial but to stop it completely.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Just to remind these same folk:
You’ve not lifted 1/2m kids out of poverty. You’ve just moved them over a bureaucratic line on a Whitehall spreadsheet.
Your ‘workers rights’ are destroying entry-level jobs, hitting young people disproportionately, where unemployment is now over 16%.
You have not transformed the NHS. It’s still the same old wheezing leviathan, just with a lot more dosh and still dismal productivity.
And you’ve nationalised steel and rail before. It was not the prelude to an economic or industrial miracle. Plus you will now have to include their demands for capital/subsidies among all the other priorities already crowding in on the public purse.
Other than that your reminder was useful. Thank you.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Labour thinks it has found the holy grail with Andy Burnham. It’s more likely to end up in an unholy mess
https://t.co/2wvapc2A5M

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Andy Burnham is rethinking plans to appoint Ed Miliband as his Chancellor because Ed Miliband is a batsh*t crazy climate hysteric who would crash the economy overnight.

[Anthony Holman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @antholman]

@marcwebber Is this a parody account ?

[Anthony Holman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @antholman]

@KarlTurnerMP Delusional

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Well now you have to decide if Andy Burnham is lying, stupid or a mad communist... Because his little victory speech about his position should he become PM is mental!

UK public debt is already nearly £2.9 TRILLION. And he says he will ...
1. lower water bills, energy bills and train fares - what does this mean? how would this be done? who will pay for it?
2. re industrialise the country by forcing government procurement from British companies. Brilliant, that will cost about 50% more. Who will pay for that? And how does that affect daft net zero?
3. guarantee every 16-18 year old a job or apprenticeship. Where? who will pay for this?
4. This agenda will bring the country back together apparently.

Delivering even half of this agenda across the UK would mean enormous additional borrowing and huge tax rises in a shrinking jobs market, it won't raise living standards, it will just make everyone equally poor faster 😂

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Watching and listening to mainstream media this morning, you can almost feel the frisson of excitement at Andy Burnham's victory. It's undoubtedly a huge win but supposedly politically neutral presenters are oozing with delight at the prospect of him being PM.

Just like they did with Keir Starmer.

It's going to be hilarious watching him fail to live up to their hopes.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

Remarkable victory for the Tories in Aberdeen South, beating SNP 50% to 29% — as resounding as Burnham in Makerfield. But it’s not replicable for the Tories on a national scale — and before the year is out Labour will discover that neither is Makerfield.

[Andrew Neil @afneil]

A welcoming present just out this morning for a Mr A Burnham to underline just how limited his latitude as PM will be:
The UK government borrowed £23.3 billion last month, 30 per cent or £5.4 billion higher than a year earlier.
It was also more than the £18.8 billion expected by most economists and the £17.7 billion forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the UK’s independent fiscal watchdog.
 The interest payable on government debt rose to £11.7 billion, the highest ever recorded in any May.

[Daniel Priestley @DanielPriestley]

UK ENTREPRENEURSHIP — 10 GROWTH POLICIES IN BRIEF

I get asked about what the uk could do to improve business. Here’s 10 policies…

ATTRACT

1. Start-Up Zones in Britain's poorest postcodes.
Businesses that open and hire 4 people in the UK's most deprived areas pay 15% corporation tax until they reach 15 employees. Poland did this. Katowice alone: 100,000 jobs. Ties the tax break directly to local employment — not capital, not property.

2. A Founder & Talent Fast-Track Visa.
A three-test Founder Visa: raise £50K in year one, hire two people by year two, still trading by year three. Pair with a fast-track residency route for AI, engineering, and life sciences talent. Estonia's e-Residency returns £7.60 for every £1 invested. We have nothing comparable.

3. A Creator & Digital Nomad Visa.
Creators can live anywhere. Right now they're choosing Lisbon, Barcelona, and Dubai — because Spain, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Croatia all have digital nomad visas and we don't. A flat 20% rate on qualifying creator income for five years post-arrival would make London the home of the English-language creator economy.

ENABLE

4. Taper the VAT cliff at £90K.
The UK has the OECD's highest VAT threshold — but the cliff-edge means businesses deliberately cap their own growth to avoid it. The IMF has documented the damage. Fix: phase VAT in gradually between £90K and £150K. Pure growth unlock.

5. Household services deduction for home-based businesses.
Up to £10K/year of childcare, cleaning, and eldercare deductible for home-based business owners — but only when paid to VAT-registered providers. France, Germany, and Sweden all do this. It frees entrepreneurs to work, and drags informal cash work into the tax net.

6. A £6,000 home improvement deduction — the British ROT.
Up to £6K/year of home improvement labour deductible per household, paid to registered tradespeople. Sweden's version: 890,000 claimants, 67,000 companies paid. Upgrades housing stock, creates declared trade jobs, and cuts cash-in-hand work. Cross-party support in Sweden.

7. A working vehicle deduction for trades and mobile businesses.
Vans and working vehicles up to £35K, used 50%+ for business, fully deductible over three years. For a plumber or electrician, the van isn't a perk — it's the office. Enhanced allowance for UK-made and electric vehicles.

8. A 15% digital export corporation tax rate.
Companies deriving 60%+ of revenue from overseas customers pay 15% corp tax on export profits — matching the OECD global minimum, no international friction. Ireland charges 6.25% on IP income. We charge 25%. We're losing companies at the point of incorporation.

REWARD

9. Reinstate Entrepreneurs' Relief.
Restore 10% CGT on the first £10M of founder gains held 5+ years. The rate has gone 10% to 14% to 18% in two years. HMRC's own data: cost to the Exchequer rose 209% as founders rushed for the exit. The policy created the problem it was meant to solve.

10. Scrap the £100K tax cliff.
Between £100K and £125,140, the effective marginal rate is 62% — higher than someone earning £1 million. By 2029, 2.3 million people will be caught in it. No economist can defend the design. Restore the personal allowance and move the 45% threshold to £100K… then get it back to 40% top rate.

[Rael Braverman @raelbrav]

I predicted Restore would get 7%.

Here’s another prediction - within 12 months, Burnham as PM will be more unpopular than Starmer.

[Stuey Beef 🇬🇧🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @stuey_beef]

If Vladimir Putin changed the voting system days before an election to stop his opponents winning, every British journalist would call it what it is: rigging the rules.

Tonight, Labour rammed through a last‑minute switch in the Lords so that if Andy Burnham wins Makerfield and quits as Greater Manchester Mayor, his replacement won’t be chosen on a simple first‑past‑the‑post ballot, but on the supplementary vote system instead.

Why now?

Because Labour knows the race to replace Burnham would be a straight two‑horse fight with Reform UK – and under FPTP, the candidate with the most votes wins, no second chances, no back‑room redistributions, no “stop Reform” stitch‑ups.

Under SV, Labour gets a second bite of the cherry: if their candidate can limp into the top two, they can hoover up second preferences from every other party and magic a “majority” on the second count, even if Reform tops the poll on first preferences.

This isn’t “modernising democracy”. It’s the governing party using its Commons majority and the unelected Lords to hurriedly doctor the rules of one specific contest because it’s terrified the voters might choose someone else.

When the establishment preached to the world about “rules‑based order”, they forgot to mention one thing: in Britain, the rules are “based” on whether Labour thinks it might lose.

[Esther McVey @EstherMcVey1]

In the by-election in Makerfield today - a Labour seat, where the Labour MP stood down to give Burnham a free run at the Labour leadership - I expect Burnham to win by a comfortable margin. Because the vote today is all about how best to remove Starmer and the only person who can do that is Andy Burnham.
This isn’t a vote FOR Burnham, it will be a vote AGAINST Starmer, but Labour backbenches - desperate for a Messiah - will read the wrong lesson into the result.
And whilst ever the right splits its vote - and here Restore seems solely motivated by giving Reform a bloody nose - the Labour margin will only get bigger.

[Mike Fairclough @1MikeFairclough]

If adults are truly concerned about children's access to social media (which is undoubtedly harmful), parents should stop their own children from using it (rather than delegating their parenting to the state).

The same parents who currently give in to the demands of their children will also give in to them after the ban is implemented. As a former headteacher, I worked with thousands of parents. I've witnessed the pattern countless times.

The social media ban for under 16s will do nothing to safeguard children against harm, as evidenced by Australia. In fact, the opposite is true.

The vast majority of children in Australia are still on social media sites, except they're now "adult only" sites.

The social media ban is really about digital ID.

Britain will be one of the first democracies in the world to require IDs in order to access the internet openly.

We are sleepwalking towards a total surveillance state.

[Julia Hartley-Brewer @JuliaHB1]

Burnham wants to be all things to all men - but here's why he'll end up delivering NOTHING and pleasing no one. My column for @TheSun ⬇️ https://t.co/zKMrztgBde

[Anthony Holman 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 @antholman]

@Sacha_Lord @AndyBurnhamGM Prepare to be betrayed once again Sacha

[Bernie @Artemisfornow]

Remember when Australia said the quiet part out loud!

free speech will have to go, in order to protect multiculturalism.

Now look at the UK, same direction.

Oh…