Andy Burnham Accused of 'Prolier-than-thou' Attitude by Robert Harris

Robert Harris, a lifelong Labour supporter, has told The Independent he deplores attempts by the prime minister to appear more 'proletarian' than he is. Harris called it a 'prolier-than-thou' attitude - political slang based on the phrase 'holier-than-thou' - a hypocrite who claims they are more authentically working class than others. Since entering No 10, Burnham has talked often of his background as a working class Catholic Northerner and feeling 'an imposter' at Cambridge University as a result.

Harris, brought up in a council house and who also studied at Cambridge, said he 'hated' it when politicians like Burnham 'turn on the system that created them' and claimed to have had an 'awful' background. Labour statesmen of the past like 1960s Home Secretary Roy Jenkins had far more genuinely poor origins but never used it to boost their popularity, said Harris.