The FT reported yesterday that:
Andy Burnham has called for a “moment of reflection” after the “tragic” death of Jason Arday, as tributes were paid to Cambridge's youngest-ever Black professor who resigned last week amid allegations of plagiarism.
They added:
Burnham told broadcasters while on a visit to Cornwall: “It's a tragedy on so many levels, but particularly just for everybody who knew Jason . . . It's not a moment for any rushing to judgment. It's a moment for reflection, I would say, reflecting on how things came to this.”
It might be possible to call this fence-sitting, prevarication, or playing for time, but let me be clear: it is none of these things.
This is deliberate. It is Burnham refusing to say what is obviously necessary, as Sadiq Khan and so many others did in the aftermath of Jason Arday's death.
Arday was put under intolerable and unjustified scrutiny in well over 200 media articles, which can only be explained by a combination of racism and anti-autistic sentiment. He dared to be different, and right-wing media like the Telegraph, Mail, Times, Spectator and even the Guardian were not going to put up with that.
As Jo Maugham pointed out yesterday, not only was the risk real and obvious to those who knew Jason Arday, but he advised the Guardian to back off, and they did not.
This does not, then, require a moment of reflection on Burnham's part, except on the tragedy for Arday and his family. What it required was a moment of condemnation of vicious bullying that, in the end, looked like a lynch mob in action.
As I noted yesterday, Arday might have made mistakes, but Rachel Reeves plagiarised much of a book that she wrote, and our current Business Secretary claimed to be a solicitor when that is untrue. They got away with this. Arday's errors, if they existed, were not forgiven in the same way. That is the evidence that this vile reaction in the media was motivated not by what he did, but by the fact that he was different, and that was unacceptable to some of those in power.
A genuine leader would have the courage to say that.
A person who knew their own mind would not need time to reflect on something as obvious as this.
A person who could tell the difference between right and wrong, and between innocent comment and targeted venom, would not sit on the fence.
Either Burnham lacks these qualities, or he has them but is willing to suppress his natural sentiments to appease the neoliberal right, who are the people who created this tragedy with their hatred of everything to do with diversity, equality and inclusion, which they thought Jason Arday represented.
I had my doubts about Burnham before he made that comment. Now I know that he is just another person in office willing to excuse the power of wealthy neoliberal thuggery. He and the Labour Party he heads deserve their consignment to political oblivion in 2029, or earlier if possible. They have nothing to offer this country.
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Well said and fully agreed.
Burnham’s comms team probably advised his ‘period of reflection’ remark<p>
But even within that framing he could have ‘reflected’ on why Arday was the subject of 200 critical articles in the national press when more prominent figures who had been accused of plagiarism or massaging their CV’s – such as Reeves – have had no such pile-ons.<p>
I’ve had no expectations of Burnham from the point at which he was gifted his seat by Josh Simons – who has been at the centre of the Labour Together faction that used illegal funds to take control of the party.<p>
They are funded by corporate and foreign interests – so he wont do whats required.
Though, like you, I had no great opinion of Andy Burnham before this, I was actually shocked by the banality of his response. What a little man he’s proving himself to be.
Boris Johnson literally used to be the editor of the Spectator. A man known for how he would lie constantly. They have absolutely no problem with lies they are just a pack of racists with an agenda.
There seems an unwillingness to see and call out racism. On the plus side Diane Abbot has had her Labour Party whip reinstated, but Sadiq Khan has to put up with a lot of racist abuse with relatively little support from other politicians. People are judged very unequally as you rightly point out. We can only hope that there is a proper investigation into the events that led up to his death. It is good to see people like Jolyon Maughan speak out about their concerns. Let’s hope they continue to expose the MSM media for their part in this tragic death.
(LINO) “They have nothing to offer this country”. Fish rots from the head down , ditto political parties. The Tories are morphing into Deform. LINO? Deform-lite. As for Arday – poor devil was collateral in the silly season – something for our vile media to play with. UK journalists? – mostly whores to power (although this is unfair to whores).
Burnham really needs to stand up to the right-wing media who are desperately trying to bury him in the same way they did Starmer.
If he thought about it, he has nothing to lose by doing so, because whatever he does, they’ll criticise him anyway. The media will not stop until they have restored someone like Liz Truss, who they can easily control.
So don’t be a wimp, Andy. Speak your truth and the public will love you for it, even if you rattle the cages of the hopelessly corrupt media. Call them out on their corruption.
Absolutely spot on Richard. Burnham has always been one to sit on the fence – then jump when he sees which way he ‘thinks’ the wind is blowing. This is what cost him the 2016 leadership election.
The press, even by their snakes belly standards hit a low with their hounding of a young man to his death. Then, as ever, ‘not us guv’.
Burnham’s slippery response allows them to carry on slipping out from under.
Agreed
Burnham can’t even call what is happening in Gaza is genocide, so why expect him to speak out about Arday? The paint is already coming off the respray job Burnham replacing Starmer actually is. Labour is dead. Pity we have another 3 years to endure its rotting corpse. And even then, some other retread uniparty will replace it.
Good point.
The hounding of Jason Arday stinks, but then that’s what you’d expect from the self styled guardians of democracy in the cess pit of contemporary British journalism. But, if I were Burnham I’m not sure taking these charmers over this issue would be a good move. Poor Jason Arday was in the real sense of the word a tragic figure, a flawed but clearly talented charismatic individual whose downfall was orchestrated by the massed army of anti-woke warriors, or bigots to use a more earthy epithet. Pick your battles though is a key skill for those facing a settled consensus, however corrupt, indeed the more corrupt the more selection becomes a necessity.
That said I do doubt Burnham has the character to fight any battle, but let’s hope and pray he does, and he picks the right ones, and wins.
What would a good move then be?
It’s equally important how you fight. In this case he could have pointed out examples of the most venomous reporting.
He could have even pointed out what Richard mentioned about Rachel Reeves or another comparable example with no or far less attention from the media.
You don’t need to engage with nukes in every battle but there needs to be at least organized resistance with enough force to push back the enemy thus showing it the limits.
That’s what I expect from good leadership.
I think it’s only fair to point out that the accusations of plagerism against Jason Arday have still not been proven
Correct.
They have against Rachel Reeves.
“Compassion for Jason Arday and his family is essential. But compassion without a language of power risks becoming another form of silence. A deeper question is what kind of society produces and tolerates such relentless forms of humiliation, especially such shaped by racism, cruelty and savage inequalities of neoliberal fascim.” [From the attached article from the current edition of “Counterpunch”]
https://www.counterpunch.org/2026/08/17/jason-arday-and-the-machinery-of-cruelty/
Thank you