Andy Burnham was facing embarrassment last night after a No 10 speechwriter was caught using artificial intelligence to help craft a keynote address.
The Downing Street aide using ChatGPT to make the Prime Minister’s words more ’emotive’ was also seen quaffing prosecco as he wrote about the cost-of-living crisis en route to a party conference.
The adviser was working on the speech on the 17.03 train from London Euston to Holyhead on Friday, where a fellow passenger spotted him using the AI assistant.
While supping the bubbly, he polished Mr Burnham’s speech to Welsh Labour members in Llandudno on Saturday, in which the Prime Minister declared: ‘Cost of living is the top issue here in Wales, as it is in all parts of the UK.’
Lee Anderson, chairman of Reform UK, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It must be thirsty work writing speeches for Burnham.
‘His bubbly-drinking socialists have no plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. AI Andy’s man-of-the-people act has been exposed as a sham.
‘He’s an artificial prime minister who doesn’t have the faintest clue what he believes or what he’s doing.’
Mr Burnham’s speech came as he is battling to face down Labour critics of radical welfare reforms intended to wean young people off benefits and into work.
The Downing Street aide was spotted the 17.03 train from London Euston to Holyhead on Friday using Ai to help write a speech of the PM
Pictured: The No.10 aide using ChatGPT to make tweaks to Mr Burnham’s speech
Andy Burnham giving a speech at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno on November 14. The aide used ChatGPT to make the Prime Minister’s words more ’emotive’
The Prime Minister is planning to address Labour MPs on Tuesday to urge them to support a shake-up of the system being spearheaded by former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Milburn.
Mr Milburn is expected to unveil plans for billions of pounds of upfront investment to help young people find jobs in an attempt to cut the number of so-called ‘Neets’ – 16 to 24-year-olds not in education, employment or training – that will also involve cutting benefits.
The Mail on Sunday has agreed to withhold the speechwriter’s identity at Downing Street’s request.
While working on Tuesday’s address, he was seen consulting ChatGPT about ways to improve a section criticising Margaret Thatcher’s legacy.
The bot recommended the use of an ’emotive’ passage describing ‘working men’s clubs, choirs and other social infrastructure’ that were lost as Britain moved away from its industrial base.
And in the speech he delivered, Mr Burnham spoke about how Mrs Thatcher’s premiership in the 1980s ‘shattered the way of life for communities up and down Britain’ with ‘mines closed, factories closed, steelworks silenced’.
He also referred to ‘the workplaces that created a way of life, the social infrastructure that we took for granted, the working men’s clubs, the sports teams, the choirs, the trade unions’, adding: ‘People came together, looked out for each other.’
The aide was also seen drafting references to the cost of living as he worked on the train.
And in the speech he delivered, Mr Burnham said: ‘I also know what I’ve got to do is help people now.
‘And I’m in no doubt whatsoever: cost of living is the top issue here in Wales, as it is in all parts of the UK.’
This is one the most critical weeks so far of Mr Burnham’s nascent premiership, with the Prime Minister also facing a Brussels summit on Friday which he has said will be used as the launchpad for a ‘conversation’ on future relations which could end with Britain going ‘all the way’ back into the European fold.
The adviser was sipping prosecco as he worked on Mr Burnham’s speech
Lee Anderson, chairman of Reform UK, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It must be thirsty work writing speeches for Burnham. ‘His bubbly-drinking socialists have no plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis’
Mr Burnham’s speech came as he is battling to face down Labour critics of radical welfare reforms intended to wean young people off benefits and into work
A leaked draft agreement for the summit includes a promise by the UK not to proceed with early removals and deportations of foreign criminals to EU countries and would give permission for young people from all 27 EU nations to live in Britain for up to three years, along with a multitude of commitments to sign up to EU rules.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch told The Mail on Sunday that it was ‘a laundry list of extra costs for struggling families’.
Mr Burnham said in his speech: ‘We need to be willing to take difficult decisions to get the cost of living down. It’s why in a few days’ time, I will head to the next UK-EU summit. And I will be working hard as we move towards it to get to a new deal on food and farming.’
Mr Burnham also announced that some of Britain’s biggest employers, including BT, Marks and Spencer, and Home Bargains, were joining the Government’s workplace savings initiative in which workers automatically put a percentage of their pay straight into savings each month.
No 10 said: ‘The PM writes most of his own speeches and this one was no exception.’
