Ali Harvey

Love nature, RSPB, folk music, my menagerie at home and living 15 foot from the sea - till a very high tide or storm force winds!!! :-D

[Elizabeth Bangs -No accountability? No democracy. @ElizabethBangs]

Diabolical bad taste.
Proof, if proof were needed, that a planet-sized ego is a more significant feature of this man even than his Comms instinct. And so many MPs are dumber than we'd hope they'd be.

[Jack Deakin @JackEDeakin]

Yep. No humility, high in ego. To be expected.

[David Hansard @_davidhansard]

What I find disturbing about this photo - in relation to having a healthy democracy - is that not only has the PLP assumed it is acceptable to have parachuted in a man who wasn't even an MP until last week, they are already fawning over him and treating him as if he's the leader.

[Viviane: #AnyoneButBurnham @LaindonFEMINIST]

The tributes from international Leaders should make Keir Starmer very proud.

A remarkable PM. Undervalued by his own Country.

[Andy @AndyRejoinEU]

As a Labour member, I promise to be as loyal to Burnham in the way that he was loyal to the 420,749 voters in Greater Manchester, to whom he promised he would serve the full term.

He left them with a £4.7m election to pay for.

#NeverBurnham

[Ali Bond ♀️🟪⬜🟩 @AlisonEBond]

I am appalled by the triumphalism of Burnham and the PLP shown in that photograph taken in Parliament today. Supporting Burnham's coup in the place that symbolises our democracy. They look just look like the foot soldiers of a insurgent commander. Utterly, utterly disgusting.

[Politics UK @PolitlcsUK]

🚨 WATCH: Andy Burnham is called a "traitor" as he arrives into Parliament

[The Last Blairite #TrueLabour @LastBlairite]

This is shameful from every single Labour MP, pissing about like this on the day the first Labour PM in 14 years stands down. Totally lacking class. Could’ve waited a day for such nonsense. I can see my MP on there and I’m embarrassed.

[Kevin Schofield @KevinASchofield]

Senior Labour source: “Andy has started a coup against Keir and then demanded Keir slow down the coup until such a time as Andy knows what he’s doing.”

[Patrick Christys @PatrickChristys]

Look at them all, grinning as they parachute in a bloke who has tried and failed to be Labour leader twice, who won a manufactured by-election and will now become PM unopposed so he can avoid all scrutiny of what he actually stands for. Risible.

[Patrina Finch #FBPE @Siege_Perilous]

Dear @AndyBurnhamGM. I've cancelled my @uklabour Party membership today thanks to you. You've made sure the Party will remain unelectable for more than the 14 it took to get back into power. That's how ur treachery will be rewarded. So enjoy ur smugness for this short period

[JennyPence 🌹 @JennyEPence]

Many Labour Party members are devastated today.

Complete lack of self awareness from this egotistical charlatan.

[MARK A IZATT @markaizatt]

I don’t think they’ve considered, for a second, how disconnected from the electorate this little tableaux is - complete with the Chancellor in shot, vying for a job no doubt.

It’s also, classless, only a few hours after their leader and PM fell on his sword.

This won’t end well.

[Dr Shama Junejo @ShamaJunejo]

@AndyBurnhamGM Bro, I have saved this tweet since 2016. Don’t delete it ever.

[Andy Burnham @AndyBurnhamGM]

I have never taken part in a coup against any Leader of the Labour Party and I am not going to start now. 2/3

[Damian Low @DamianLow3]

Seeing some of the embarrassingly hateful reactions to Starmer's resignation today, I thought it was worth resharing this.

The level of personal hostility directed at Keir Starmer deserves scrutiny in its own right. Not because he should be immune from criticism, but because the tone and intensity of the attacks tell us something unhealthy about the state of democratic politics.

Starmer is a conventional political figure. Cautious, legalistic, incremental. He frustrates people precisely because he is managerial rather than messianic. Yet the reaction to him often goes far beyond disagreement, tipping into visceral hatred more commonly reserved for authoritarians or demagogues.

Much of this hostility is disconnected from concrete policy. It is not about specific votes, proposals or outcomes, but about projection. A belief that Starmer embodies betrayal, bad faith or hidden malice. That kind of politics runs on suspicion rather than evidence.

This matters because democracy depends on the assumption of good faith among opponents. You can think a leader is wrong, timid, or misguided without believing they are fundamentally illegitimate. Once politics becomes moralised to the point of demonisation, compromise is reframed as treachery and pluralism as weakness.

The pattern is familiar. In fragmented, polarised systems, anger concentrates not on extremists, whose intentions are clear, but on moderates, who disappoint maximalists on all sides. The centre becomes the lightning rod precisely because it resists totalising narratives.

There is also a media and online dynamic at work. Incentives reward outrage, not proportionality. Algorithms favour contempt over analysis. Over time, this creates a political culture in which relentless personal attack feels normal, even virtuous, rather than disgusting.

None of this is a defence of Starmer’s decisions, instincts or record. Those should be argued over robustly as you do in a democracy. The problem is the substitution of critique with hostility and the quiet erosion of democratic norms that follows when political opponents are treated as enemies rather than rivals.

A democracy cannot function if every election is framed as an existential struggle against internal evil. At some point, the target may change, but the damage to trust, restraint and culture remains.

[Harriet Symonds @harriet_symonds]

EXC: Labour MPs opposed to a coronation are rallying around Darren Jones to challenge Andy Burnham for the leadership

An MP organising for him tells me: ‘Lots of people are pushing Darren to stand.

There is real opposition to a coronation for someone who hasn't really said what he believes in or will do as PM’

[Narinder Kaur @narindertweets]

Hounded out by right-wing media.
He lost his brother months into his leadership and still carried on with grace.
A shameful moment in political history

[BelindaSales. @sales_belinda]

Had #Burnham got elected to be PM in the normal channels, not by begging someone to stand down, win the by-election then be ushered into no 10, then I would have stayed in the Labour party & supported him.
But I despise what he's done. I despise disloyalty. I despise Burnham.

[john eastman #Rejoin @talldogman]

Dear @UKLabour
I think you have just made a truly disastrous decision.
Starmer was PRECISELY what the uk needed for this moment in time, rebuilding from 14 years of catastrophic tory fuckwittery.

Foolish, deluded, and gutless.
You're welcome.