Andy Burnham dealt brutal blow in four words on live TV

Andy Burnham was advised to drop his "King of the North" persona if he becomes the next Prime Minister in a brutal four-word blow as political commentator Fraser Nelson outlined some of the difficulties the Makerfield MP could face after his expected entry into Downing Street next month.

The former Mayor of Manchester boasts a boyish charisma and charm while promising that he wil be offering a politics that understands the motivations and concerns of those outside London and who feel unheard. But Nelson believes that "realities will settle in" after a while.

He told Andrew Neil in an interview: "Those realities are that economic growth isn't going to get any better, and living standards aren't going to improve very much. Welfare, which I believe, needs urgent reform even if everything goes right there."

Nelson reminded Burnham that being a Prime Minister is different than being a regional mayor, cautioning that his "northern schtick" might begin to grate. He said: "Manchester is to the south of 40% of UK land mass, and if you are a southerner, you won't want it rubbed in your face that much. He started talking about taking part of No 10 up to Manchester. It makes a little difference, I can understand why he wants to differentiate it that way."

He brought up Gordon Brown as an example and said despite the former PM being Scottish, he was talking about Britishness all the time.

He added: "So I think this King of the North persona that Andy Burnham has managed to develop, to disguise the fact that he's been absolutely marinated in English elite from teenage years and proved that he can overcome a 2:1 in Cambridge. He might be advised to drop the persona and focus more on the country.

"Because his party will be saying, 'Look, we're facing greens in south and southwest. We're facing Reform in Wales. You cannot continually perpetuate this kind of cheeky monkey persona that he has adopted.'"

Viewers shared their thoughts on Burnham's percieved King of the North persona, one said: "One of the trickiest things about Northerners is that most of them think they are Peter Kay."

A second said: "I don't quite get this King-of-the-North bit - Blair was MP for Sedgefield (much further north), Sunak was MP for Richmond in North Yorkshire, and that too north of Manchester."

A third, who lives in the north, admitted: "His whole persona has irritated me from day one."