By Joseph Timan

Copyright manchestereveningnews

A lot can change over a year in politics, but one thing always seems to stay the same. Everyone is still talking about Andy Burnham . Kemi Badenoch, the Conservative leader who refused to set out specific policies when she was running to replace Rishi Sunak last year, made a series of policy announcements in her closing speech at the party’s conference in Manchester. She promised £47bn of savings – half of which would come from benefit cuts – as well as scrapping taxes such as stamp duty , if the Tories return to power. She spent much of her speech criticising Labour while also defending the Conservatives’ record in government. But she still made sure to mention the Greater Manchester mayor, accusing him of ‘touting his own manifesto’ at the Labour Party conference last week. “But to be honest, I can’t blame Andy Burnham for that one,” she quipped. “Who doesn’t want to get rid of this utterly useless, weak Prime Minister?” Join the Manchester Evening News WhatsApp group HERE Her comments come amid rumours that Mr Burnham is plotting a return to Westminster in the hope of becoming Labour leader. The Labour mayor refused to rule out running for leader in the future, but insisted that he supports Keir Starmer and his government. His interventions ahead of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, were criticised by ministers and even some of his supporters. But that hasn’t stopped the speculation, even among Conservatives who have their own leadership rumours to worry about. Rumours Robert Jenrick, who lost to Mrs Badenoch in the Conservative Party leadership contest last year, have not gone away. Supporters of the current Conservative leader, including some in Greater Manchester, believe she is the right person for the job. Laura Evans, who stood against Mr Burnham twice as the Tory candidate for mayor, said Mrs Badenoch ‘absolutely nailed’ her speech. “She’s listened,” Mrs Evans said. “She’s taken 12 months to do this. “People have been badgering and badgering. ‘Where’s your evidence? What are you going to do? What are you going to do?’ “But ultimately, she’s waited, she’s listened, and she’s actually put into, what I consider to be, action. Things that will affect every person and make their lives better.” “If I was waiting for 14 years in opposition, I’d have had a great plan,” she said, criticising Labour’s record in government so far. “When I stood against Andy Burnham twice, every time I had a great plan. I wasn’t chosen by the people – they chose Burnham and now look what they’ve got.” “He’s shown his true colours,” she added. “He went too early to take his own government out. “I’m horrified that he has behaved so badly with his own.” During the Labour Party conference in Liverpool last week, Mr Burnham defended his recent interventions, criticising the government and setting out his own policies, by saying that he was speaking out for Labour councillors who are worried about losing their seats. However, it’s not just his own party’s councillors who are worried about the next set of location elections taking place next May. Bolton council’s Conservative leader Nadim Muslim, who also backed Mrs Badenoch as leader, said the Tories are fighting ‘on all fronts’. “We’re not unaware of the challenge that we face,” he said, “but I think what this conference weekend has shown is that the Conservatives have still got a fight on them and they’ve still got policies that actually can mean real changes in Bolton and across the country.” “We’ve got challenges on all fronts and I don’t think that’s unique to the Conservative Party. Labour are just as worried about Lib Dem and Reform as well as some Conservative challenge as well in some seats. “It’s a landscape at the moment in politics in Bolton where we’ve also had independent parties that we’ve had to fight with which means it could go any which way. So we’re not taking anything for granted, we’re not seeing one specific enemy. “We’re just going to do what we can to deliver and show people that the councillors that we’ve got that are up for re-election already to deliver for their area and they should keep doing that.” Responding to Mrs Badenoch’s Conservative Party Conference speech, Labour Party chair Anna Turley said: “Kemi Badenoch is in complete denial. The public saw the Tories’ disastrous blueprint for Britain across their 14 years of failure in government – and the Conservatives still won’t apologise for the mess they left. “Kemi Badenoch set herself a new ‘golden economic rule’ today and broke it immediately. It’s the same old Tories, with the same old policies without a plan. They didn’t work then and you can’t trust them now. “Only Labour can renew Britain. Real wages have grown more in the first ten months of this Labour Government than in the first ten years under the Tories. Only Labour can be trusted to grow our economy, secure our borders, and make working people better off.”