{"id":26479,"date":"2026-06-25T13:54:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/they-abandoned-starmer-for-a-pair-of-eyelashes-kemi-badenoch-takes-swipe-at-andy-burnham-heres-his-response\/"},"modified":"2026-06-25T13:54:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T08:24:17","slug":"they-abandoned-starmer-for-a-pair-of-eyelashes-kemi-badenoch-takes-swipe-at-andy-burnham-heres-his-response","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/they-abandoned-starmer-for-a-pair-of-eyelashes-kemi-badenoch-takes-swipe-at-andy-burnham-heres-his-response\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They abandoned Starmer for a pair of eyelashes\u2019: Kemi Badenoch takes swipe at Andy Burnham; here&#8217;s his response"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131987948,imgsize-79000,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/andy-burnham.jpg\" alt=\"\u2018They abandoned Starmer for a pair of eyelashes\u2019: Kemi Badenoch takes swipe at Andy Burnham; here's his response\" title=\"Andy Burnham\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In a light-hearted response to remarks made during Prime Minister&#8217;s Questions (PMQs), Andy Burnham hit back at Kemi Badenoch after she dismissed him as &#8220;a pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt&#8221; while hitting out at Labour&#8217;s leadership turmoil.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"2\"\/>Hours after the exchange in the House of Commons, Burnham posted a video on social media in which he appeared wearing a dark T-shirt and exaggeratedly batted his eyelashes at the camera. He also corrected Badenoch&#8217;s description, quipping that the T-shirt was &#8220;dark blue, actually&#8221;.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>Badenoch targets Burnham while attacking Labour<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"8\"\/>During a combative PMQs session dominated by the fallout from Keir Starmer&#8217;s resignation announcement, Badenoch accused Labour MPs of abandoning their leader.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>&#8220;They have abandoned him and what for? A pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt,&#8221; she said, in an apparent reference to Burnham, before questioning whether Labour&#8217;s problems ran deeper than its leadership.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>The Conservative leader also launched a series of attacks on senior Labour figures, including Rachel Reeves, suggesting ministers had already shifted their attention to a future leadership contest.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>Burnham&#8217;s playful comeback<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>Burnham chose humour over a direct rebuttal. In the video posted shortly after PMQs, the Makerfield MP appeared to mock the criticism by leaning into the description, fluttering his eyelashes while wearing a dark-coloured T-shirt.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/>His response quickly drew attention online, with supporters praising the light-hearted approach and critics accusing Badenoch of resorting to personal attacks rather than addressing policy issues.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>PMQs dominated by Labour succession battle<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"25\"\/>The exchange came following Starmer&#8217;s decision to step down. Labour MPs had greeted the outgoing prime minister with cheers as he entered the Commons, but the session was overshadowed by questions over the party&#8217;s future leadership.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>Badenoch repeatedly sought to portray Labour as divided, while Starmer defended his government&#8217;s record and his partnership with Reeves. He argued that Labour had rebuilt itself after years in opposition and delivered a landslide election victory.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/uk\/they-abandoned-starmer-for-a-pair-of-eyelashes-kemi-badenoch-takes-swipe-at-andy-burnham-heres-his-response\/articleshow\/131987446.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In a light-hearted response to remarks made during Prime Minister&#8217;s Questions (PMQs), Andy Burnham hit back at Kemi Badenoch after she dismissed him as &#8220;a pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt&#8221; while hitting out at Labour&#8217;s leadership turmoil.Hours after the exchange in the House of Commons, Burnham posted a video on social media in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26480,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[299],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-latest-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}