Andy Burnham coasted into No. 10 via an uncontested leadership election in which he was never forced to share his views on the great and grave issues facing Britain. As a result, when he became Prime Minister we knew little to nothing about how he planned to address the migration crisis, the energy crisis, the worklessness crisis or the prisons crisis. But to govern is to be confronted with events and forced to choose and so we are fast learning who Burnham is. Last week’s scenes from Ceuta, as 60,000 Moroccans swarmed across the Spanish border, seemed to represent the gulf between the rich, soft West, and the people who come here because they want the wealth we are all too eager to give them.

What we’re really being offered isn’t a trade, but an additional route by which asylum seekers will flood into the country

What we’re really being offered isn’t a trade, but an additional route by which asylum seekers will flood into the country

So Burnham was required to speak, to choose, to reveal who he is. What we saw was worrying. He has promised to be ‘relentless’ in reducing arrivals via small boats with a new ‘whole approach’. ‘People want to see........

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