Danny Dyer could be right, you know.
Like a lot of political journalists, I have been forcing myself to get used to describing Andy Burnham as Prime Minister in recent weeks.
I have reported on Mr Burnham delivering speeches from the Despatch Box, battling with Tory leader Kemi Badenoch at Prime Minister’s Questions, and touring the country to meet voters over the past two months.
Later today, Mr Burnham will meet US President Donald Trump for the first time, hours before addressing world leaders at a meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
But it seems that not everyone has noticed.
Earlier this week, the former EastEnders actor launched into a rant about Mr Burnham when asked for a “message for the Prime Minister” at a demonstration about sewage in water supplies in Kent.
He said: “I don’t know who the Prime Minister is, mate. Do you?”
When reminded that Mr Burnham was Prime Minister, he said: “Yeah, but who is he? I don’t understand.”
‘I don’t know who the Prime Minister is, mate. Do you?’ Mr Dyer swiped at a protest in Kent | BBCMr Dyer’s comments are a useful corrective to the acceptance in Westminster of Mr Burnham as Prime Minister.
It certainly felt odd on the flight to New York last night to be asking him questions of Mr Burnham, with the new PM sitting in a near-identical seat occupied on a similar plane by Sir Keir Starmer months earlier.
Mr Dyer went on: “Did anyone vote for him? Because I didn’t vote for him.”
Mr Dyer’s words go to the heart of a problem for Mr Burnham: He has been appointed PM by his MPs, without winning a General Election.
Danny Dyer’s words go to the heart of a problem for Andy Burnham, Christopher Hope writes
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HOUSE OF COMMONSThis matters.
There is a reason that elections are fought over a six-week period, as it forces party leaders to get out and about, to meet voters across Great Britain and Northern Ireland, to speak with them on GB News, through websites and newspapers.
Mr Burnham knows this.
He tried to make light of Mr Dyer’s comments on the flight to New York, saying of him: “I’m not sure I know who he is. Is he the father-in-law of a West Ham player?”
The PM was joking of course. Perhaps so was Danny Dyer.
But the trading of insults masks the deeper reality that there is still a democratic deficit surrounding Mr Burnham’s appointment as PM by his MPs.
People like Danny Dyer are correct to point it out.
Joking about it will get the PM so far. But only so far.
If Mr Burnham wants to earn the right to be seen as PM by the rest of the country, he will have to call – and win – a General Election.
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