Laura Evans

This is such a fun day.
Do try and come.

Hold on to your hats folks...

If I were Andy Burnham, I'd be terrified about the inheritance Keir Starmer has left. Yet instead of stepping gingerly towards Downing Street, he's bounding along with glee. So delighted is he, in fact, that he seems not to have noticed that he's walking into a trap.

The problem for Burnham is that the snare has been laid by his own supporters. 'He was brilliant,' an elderly Mancunian woman said in a documentary about the Greater Manchester mayor last week.

'Ten out of ten – 12 out of ten if you want. [My son] had 18 things wrong with him and within a couple of days [Burnham got him] the top rate of PIP.'

Everywhere Andy goes and every time he bumps into a voter, his spending incontinence kicks in and a new promise is made. 'It would be great if he could do something for working people. Like an increase in pensions,' one voter told an ITV reporter.

✍️ Michael Simmons

Article | spectator.com/article/its-going-to-make-liz-truss-look-like-a-savant-are-you-ready-for-burnhams-first-budget

Good to see flags up in Manchester - as they always have been.

Your decision to rally against Keir Starmer tells the people of this constituency a great deal about you and your judgement.

Not forgeting you were not the first choice. You were parachuted in after the original candidate withdrew. Perhaps you don't know the history of our area.

You have chosen to wrap yourself in the record of Andy Burnham. If that is the record you wish to defend, then let us examine it.

This is the Mayor whose administration committed around £130 million to Clean Air Zone cameras and signage for a scheme that was ultimately withdrawn after widespread opposition.

This is the Mayor who was in office and did nothing to stop the Altrincham Minor Injuries Unit being closed.

This is the Mayor whose bus programme is already in debt, according to its critics, and added to the financial burden on local households. While the mayoral precept has continued to rise but no one knows what we're paying for.

This is the Mayor who has faced sustained criticism over his handling of child sexual exploitation issues in Greater Manchester.

This is the Mayor who was in office when Greater Manchester Police entered special measures following the discovery that around 80,000 crimes had not been properly recorded - the administration has also faced questions over the £27 million spent on the failed iOPS system.

This is the Mayor who promised progress on rough sleeping, yet the problem remains all too visible.

This is the Mayor who has promised better outcomes for young children, "early years and school readiness", yet many would argue that progress has fallen well short of expectations.

And yet, this is the record you have chosen to champion.

So I have a simple question. If Andy Burnham's record is one of such remarkable success, why is it so difficult for you to tell the public what those achievements actually are?

Again the MP is just not listening.

Residents tell me they don't want a diagnostics centre they want the Altrincham Minor Injuries Unit/Walk-in Centre reopened.

That service was closed under a Labour administration, and one of the Labour councillors even stated that it wasn't needed.

Residents deserve answers on why a valued local service was abandoned rather than being told a diagnostics centre is an adequate replacement - because it's not

Recently, I again raised my campaign for better services at Altrincham Hospital in Parliament. Today, I followed up on this by meeting Karin Smyth, a minister in the Department of Health and Social Care.

I was clear that following the loss of the Altrincham Minor Injuries Unit under the previous government due to staff shortages, residents deserve new and improved health services.

We have already made progress with a new skin cancer clinic opening last year as part of this government's record investment in the NHS.

Now I want us to go further and establish a diagnostics centre at Altrincham Hospital, so we can reduce pressure on Wythenshawe A&E while giving local patients the care they need quicker.

ABSURD: Labour just voted to press ahead with a medical experiment on children.

Vulnerable children as young as 11 will be given drugs that stop the natural development of their bodies through puberty.

No child, let alone one that young, can consent to a medical pathway which can lead to infertility and the loss of sexual function for the rest of their lives.