Burnham slammed as pathetic teenager for No10 Gogglebox stunt

Andy Burnham has been branded a “pathetic little teenager” for becoming the first Prime Minister to appear on Celebrity Gogglebox, with Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg tearing into the Channel 4 stunt live on GB News as undignified and childish.

The Makerfield MP will sit inside No10 on Friday for the Stand Up To Cancer special, joined by Liverpool City Region mayor Steve Rotheram, chatting through the week’s television like any other sofa pair. A trailer already shows “good friends Andy and Steve” talking about crisps in the most famous address in the country.

Sir Jacob did not hold back. “I haven’t stopped groaning inwardly at the awfulness of it. Can you imagine any of our great figures from the past? Our noble prime ministers: Walpole, Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger, Palmerston, Disraeli, Gladstone, Lloyd George, terrible liberal though he was, Churchill, Thatcher, Attlee, a socialist, any of them, behaving in this unutterably undignified and fundamentally childish way.”

He went further: “These people, this man is meant to lead our country. He’s meant to represent us on the world stage. He is meant to have a presence in the world, in the nation, to the nation, for the nation. Instead, he behaves like some pathetic little teenager or a rock star.”

Britain needs a Prime Minister who can look the country in the eye and take hard decisions, not one chasing soft laughs from a charity sofa. Office is not a brand exercise. The job is to say no when every lobby wants more money, not to rank snacks and play the mate next door while the nation watches.

Farage did the show years earlier

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage appeared in a Gogglebox spin-off in 2014 while leader of Ukip, long before any return to Parliament. Asked whether it was unfair for Mr Burnham to go on without other party leaders, a spokesman for Mr Farage said: “Nigel has done it before and would happily do it again.”

That earlier turn came from an outsider fighting the system, not from the man already holding the keys to No10. The difference matters. One was a campaigner using popular television; the other is the Prime Minister treating the office like a celebrity booking.

Sir Jacob drew the line on GB News with cold clarity. “He’s the Prime Minister, and this is really important. There is a fundamental difference between a politician and a celebrity. If you’re a celebrity, your job is to appeal to absolutely everybody because that’s the way you sell your film. You fill your theatre. You get an audience for your game show. You turn out to be some great star like Marilyn Monroe. You want everyone to like you. But if you’re a politician, you have a very different job.”

He set out the duty in plain terms: a politician follows principle even when people disagree, and a Prime Minister must be able to refuse endless demands for spending on potholes, tuition or any other good cause because difficult choices have to be made. Mr Burnham is no stranger to light media turns, having ranked pub snacks on camera with Chancellor John Healey and taken questions while standing on a stepladder. Friday’s No10 sofa appearance simply raises the stakes.

Viewers will see the charity special this week. The rebuke from Sir Jacob already frames it as a test of seriousness. A Prime Minister who wants to be liked by everyone risks looking like he has forgotten what the office is for.

Original source: Express