Columnist Tony Porter has a list of policy suggestions for Andy Burnham should he move into No 10

OK so few saw that coming: a potential PM voted in on a negative campaign against the party they represent.

Some 24,927 voted for our next potential PM. As I said weeks ago: never have so few had such power over the future of so many.

Mr Burnham MP, if you become the Prime Minister here are some ideas you can ignore (I fear more of the same as before, or worse.)

After all, as pointed out often by a sitting town centre Wigan councillor I am only a shopkeeper, so what do I know?

First off we need to get businesses back to hiring people, without worry of making mistakes so number one day one: repeal the Employment Rights Act 2025 in full.

Number two: scrap the added NI contributions for employers.

Number three: scrap business rates for all hospitality and retailers, with less than ten employees at sites or units smaller than 10,000f sq.

Add business rates to warehouses used for online shopping, like the many huge Amazon warehouses who only pay per square metre on the ground, but have multiple items stacked 50ft in the air. Treat every level like the floor, therefore 10 high racking gets 10x business rates for that floorspace. Anyone who sells more than 100 items online via eBay or Vinted for example per year must declare that income, and if on benefits, have that amount deducted from said benefits.

Number Four: restore the two-child cap or lower the current unlimited cap to three children.

Number Five: drill baby drill. Get the North Sea back online to secure our supply while we invest in nuclear power stations, scrap all the net zero targets, stop inland windfarms and all solar panels sites in fields that could be used for crops or grazing.

Number Six: drop inheritance tax for all farms that actively feed the population or have been in families for centuries.

Number Seven: remove the “human rights” from immigrants who are found guilty of any crime so they can be deported and not remain because their kid likes UK chicken nuggets.

Number Eight: scrap the 20 per cent VAT in private school fees. If parents wish to pay for their children’s education, let them, but this VAT has made many  remove them from private schools and pile pressure onto our state-run schools.

Number Nine: stop mega warehouses being built in inappropriate places, eg Astley. Save the green belt, build on brown site first. (We have the concern that The Bell will be next if Wigan Council let the plans through).

Number Ten: restore freedom of speech so that people can express their thoughts on various issues online without the fear of the bobbies knocking in their door. Obviously not if they are inciting hated or violence.

Number Eleven: make sure  the “record funding” of the NHS and Armed Forces are getting to the front line and not spent on various levels of management taking six-figure salaries.

Number Twelve: scrap totally HS2. Let that funding be spent on modernising the rail network and fixing the motorways which in places are breaking up.

There are loads more, migration, foreign policy, Ukraine, fishing rights in OUR seas, etc etc.

Good luck and if you want to do a Wigan Watch interview let me know (he won’t obvs)