Martin Daubney BANNED from Reddit for asking Andy Burnham hard-hitting question on Rochdale rapist

The Labour frontrunner and certainly our next Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, has been accused of dodging media scrutiny, while the MP for Megafield is presently hosting a session called Ask Me Anything on the social media platform Reddit. But critics say he is avoiding tough topics by opting for a format that allows his team to cherry-pick soft-soaping questions and put them to the Prime Minister. I'm delighted to be joined by GB News' Deputy Political Editor Tom Harwood. Tom, welcome to the show. This session with Andy Burnham is presently underway at the moment. Tom, I just found out I've been banned by Reddit. I've been banned by Reddit because I asked a few sticky questions. I asked the Prime Minister in waiting, would you deport the Pakistani paedophile Shabbir Ahmed on your first day in office? If not, why not? And Tom, they told me I have violated rule one for hate. I've been banned within two hours. Well, this is clearly why Andy Burnham didn't want to have any questions asked of him at the one speech he's given since declaring his candidacy for the post of Prime Minister. He has, however, Martin, in the last six minutes, answered three questions on Reddit. These have been questions over Number 10 North, as he's describing his new office in Manchester that he wants to create. He's also answered a question on how collaborative he'll be with the First Ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. And he's answered another question on the powers of devolution. We can go into more detail here if you are interested, but these seem to be perfunctory questions that he is answering as things stand, talking about the balance of devolution in the country and indeed talking about the greater devolved powers he wants to provide for different regions in the country, too. But Tom, those are the kind of questions you'd exactly expect his lackeys to be picking up and putting to him. Let's have a nice soft bit of ground here. Let's talk about Number 10 North. Nobody really is bothered about that. People want to know serious things like, you know, will you be throwing a general election? Will you take us back into the European Union? You've never voted for welfare cuts in your entire political career. Perhaps you should do that. And Tom, when I put those to the Prime Minister, I've been banned under Rule 1 because I promoted identity-based hate or attacks. Tom, this is a farce. It does seem like that is an extraordinary response from the moderators on the UK Politics subreddit. It is known that Reddit does have a left-liberal skew of many platforms. There was an opinion poll taken of users of various different platforms in this country, and Reddit seems to be the most left-wing major platform of discussion of politics. Interestingly, Twitter, X as it is now known, was more balanced with relatively even proportions of supporters of different parties. However, it is cabinet ministers who are now withdrawing from Twitter, from X, one of the more balanced platforms, and heading towards websites like Reddit, which whilst is an excellent platform, I've used it in the past, it is great for different communities to get interests in different fields, and it's really about those different subreddits, as they're known. So there's one for politics, there are lots of different ones for sport, for entertainment, for maps, for whatever you're interested in at all. But it is seen to have much more of a left-liberal bias than other websites. And isn't that the point, Tom Hall, when we're hearing about Lisa Nandy withdrawing from X, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport withdrawing from X, spreading misinformation, it's hateful, and yet you go on to a left-wing echo chamber like Reddit, where I've just done, and said we deport a Pakistani paedophile, and I'm getting immediately banned for hate. And Tom, how much longer can Andy Burnham dodge media scrutiny, because the in-tray he will have will be full of the same old topics of grooming gangs, uncontrolled immigration. Andy Burnham can't hide forever in a basement, can he? He can hide for 16 more days, Martin. He of course becomes Prime Minister on the 20th of this month, if indeed no other challenger puts themselves forward within the Parliamentary Labour Party, and that does seem overwhelmingly likely at this case. He will be the only candidate, therefore this contest will end two weeks today, and then he'll become leader of the Labour Party, but he won't become Prime Minister for another couple of days after that on Monday the 20th of July. Now once he's Prime Minister, he will of course have to answer questions in the House of Commons. Once he's Prime Minister, he will of course have to give questions to journalists at speeches that he makes around the country. There will be a daily lobby briefing where his official spokesman has to answer questions of the assembled press. There will only be one, of course, there used to be two a day in Keir Starmer's government, half of that, but that's by the by. There will be structural questions to be asked of him, but curiously, perhaps the most curious position of any Prime Minister of this century, these questions will not be asked of him before he becomes Prime Minister. Now even Theresa May, who became Prime Minister perhaps with the least amount of scrutiny, because the way that contest collapsed when Andrea Leadsom dropped out in the summer of 2016, well at least she launched her campaign, took questions from the press, had that moment of scrutiny, shortened as it was, she still did have some. Andy Burnham has had almost none at all. You're exactly right, and that can't continue any longer. Thank you very much indeed for joining us, Tom Howard. I know you're preparing for Jubes & Co, you're covering tonight, we'll get you at the end of my show to find out what's on your menu. Thank you very much indeed, Tom Howard. Let's get my next guest, I'm joined by the political commentator Fahima Mohamed. Fahima, it's a pleasure to have your company. Do you share my cynicism here, that Andy Burnham just doesn't seem, doesn't seem to, guys, guys, Andy Burnham doesn't seem to want any media scrutiny whatsoever? Well, you have to admit, honestly, Martin, not everyone's going to be as courageous and brave like myself to sit in panels, not just with one, but sometimes more than one, who does not share my opinion and able to be able to speak freely, openly, and take scrutiny and criticism. So again, he obviously needs time and maybe I should give him some media training for that. But on the other hand, I do feel that when it comes to, you know, scrutinizing and framing and doing certain things, I think not everyone is prepared to come on. And he hasn't had a long-term campaign for Prime Minister. This has come in in such a short space of time, even though he's probably wanted it for a while, not really realizing that it's actually gonna, you know, come in a few days' time. So, you know, not everyone is, you know, as prepared for that scrutiny. Maybe once he gets the job and he has all the people around him, I do my own research, I do my own things, you probably do the same, whereas these people, they need the help. So again, that's just my sort of opinion on Andy Burnham and avoiding kind of like, you know, very difficult questioning. But I think it's fair to say though, Fahima, you know, this is the Prime Minister who's been coronated. But when that happened previously with Rishi Sunak, Andy Burnham was demanding a general election. And obviously in power now, that's off the table. And I think the electorate, whatever party, you're a supporter of the Green Party, you know, everybody has a right to know what the Prime Minister in waiting's policies are. We've seen nothing. We have no clue. We're scratching around for moats of dust in the ether to try and find a way to end on taxation, on borders, on deporting paedophiles. When I ask that question on Reddit, I'm banned. Well, honestly, like I said, I think that when it comes to Andy Burnham and many people, they want to be sitting first, understand what's going on around them and then be able to answer those questions when they actually do have a proper mandate and policies to work through. There is still so much that needs preparation. And for him to even commit to certain answers that you are willing to ask is not really fair right now. He needs to have also his entire sort of, you know, people around him to actually support what he's saying. He's not a person, even though he's going to be a Prime Minister in waiting, to be able to talk just on his own. He needs to sit with his cabinet, his ministers. Fahima, dare I counter that if it was Nigel Farage who was about to be Prime Minister and was refusing to take questions, wouldn't tell us any policies, you'd be foaming at the mouth about it. You'd be calling him a coward. You'd be saying he's hiding in the basement. You'd be saying this is outrageous. We never voted for him. I think you're giving Andy Burnham a soft ride because you're not really because actually Nigel Farage has avoided Parliament so many times. He's avoided questions over his allegations and queries across, you know, with his crypto money and things like that. So it's the same thing. He's exactly the same as Andy Burnham. If anything, they're all the same as far as I'm concerned. Fahima, you know, Nigel Farage, you obviously don't like the guy. He takes more questions from journalists at press conferences than all the rest of the political party leaders put together, including Zak Polanski. He's not afraid to take rough questioning. And the point is this, Andy Burnham is getting a very soft ride from the establishment media, dare I say, from the, yeah, he needs time to prepare. You'd never say that if it was Nigel Farage, not in a month of Sundays. Well, like I said, some of us are built to come in there, headstrong like a bull like myself and others need time. And I think he will be able to answer all your questions and more and be ready for it when the time comes. So, again, let's just give him a chance to get in there. He's just also recovering from the fact that he's probably going to be prime minister, which was not actually in the cards in the last few months, especially when he lost out in the previous by-election. So I think we need to give it some sort of chance. And you want to make sure that your answers and, you know, questions are put forward when a person who's not even there as even, you know, someone who is making those decisions yet, just wait and be patient for a couple more weeks and get all your answers. But Fahima, you know, you've got his top table here, handpicking questions that no one cares about. You know, they said, well, tell us about number ten in the north. On a serious point, in all the by-elections you've ever fought in, all the elections you've ever campaigned in and canvassed in, Fahima Mehmed, has anybody ever said to you, what I really care about is a number ten in the north? What I really care about is devolution of power. You know it's nonsense. These are pet projects that matter to team Burnham. The rest of us care about taxation, immigration and where the next pound note is coming from. Come on, this is the fantasy land. Yes, of course. But like I said, he cannot make these decisions by himself. He needs his team around him. He needs the cabinet with him in order to make sure that whatever he's putting forward is actually part of the policy for the entire party, not just himself. So he needs to have time to meet and also make sure that he can actually align with everything that's put forward for the entire party, not just himself. So again, it's unfair to scrutinise that. Nigel Farage has his team, he's got that, but he's not sitting there waiting for, you know, to be a prime minister. He's been in the media and in the spotlight for many, many sort of years and even as recently in the last, you know, couple of years. So again, you know, we cannot just compare, but he's also avoided and Andy Burnham is not avoiding. He has mentioned the fact that he doesn't want to, what do you call it, cut sort of the benefits and the welfare and he wants to, you know, change that way. There will be taxes. He hasn't been specific about that, but we need to obviously understand that. And he cannot be specific about lots of things and answer all these questions unless he's sitting there with his cabinet and ministers and the fact that they all agree and come to some sort of, you know, alignment. He's not there standing alone. He's not there also, you know, putting forward ideas, which is just coming from him. He's not sitting in parliament at the moment to make that and make those choices and decisions. I think that's very, really unfair, to be honest. And I'm not here trying to go easy on him. I'm fair with everyone. It's not like I dislike anyone in particular either. It's just the policies and the way in which they go out framing things and the way I sometimes frame people in such an unnecessary way. Fahima, what I would say to you is people are saying today, are you going to deport the paedophile Shabbir Ahmed to Pakistan? Yes or no. Are you going to raise taxes? Yes or no. And instead, Annie Burnham's saying, I understand completely that you're asking me about Number 10 in the North. It's intended to give the South West and Scotland the same as Greater Manchester. Expect to see me out and about in the South West. And I'll be explaining more soon. PS, love your username. It's nonsense. It's utter nonsense. Let me answer that for you. Let me answer that for you. We cannot do deportation unless our laws abide by. If our government is not making these agreements with other countries, then it cannot happen. It's not the fact that, you know, things just like I would like to deport anyone that is criminal or give them the most severe punishment. But it goes against the laws of the land right now. So he needs to go. So does pedophilia. Absolutely. Again, all of these things, we need to make sure that they need to have the most severe punishments. And if England, if the UK made those agreements with other countries in order to make sure that if they come here really, really in a very short space of time, that they can be sent back if they are not law abiding citizens and not, of course, with the residency as well in place. So these things, again, is to do with the law. It's to do with the fact that it takes time. The law is an ass and it needs its ass kicking. If they come in, they're not going to be able to change things just in one sort of term. They're going to take time to get Parliament, House of Commons. A new prime minister that actually stands up for the survivors of rape gangs instead of being a continued apologist for them has been going on for decades and decades and decades, too afraid of being called racist to take firm action. Andy is one answering. Are you going to be a firm action prime minister that actually deal with this cancer rather than kicking the can down the road? That is why Andy Burnham isn't taking our questions and that is why it has been banned from Reddit. For him and Mehmet, we have to leave. We have to move on there. Thanks for your comments. As ever, it's a pleasure to have your company.