Unlike a few others, I was prepared to give Andy Burnham the benefit of the doubt – and hold back on any trenchant criticism of him until he actually did something wrong. Well, just three weeks into his premiership that moment has finally arrived.

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that councils will get new powers to block new betting shops, bracketing them together with vape shops, ‘dodgy businesses’ and ‘rogue operators’. ‘The rise of vape shops, betting shops and rogue operators have replaced the shops, services and community spaces that people are crying out for’ he declared.

Burnham’s pearl-clutching disdain of betting shops shows how alienated Labour is still from its old working-class roots, in spite of its change of leader

Burnham’s pearl-clutching disdain of betting shops shows how alienated Labour is still from its old working-class roots, in spite of its change of leader

Well, I don’t know much about vape shops as I don’t ‘vape’– but I do know about betting shops having spent many happy hours in them watching horse-racing action from all over the country and beyond. And quite frankly, I find........

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