Prime minister Andy Burnham made his Celebrity Gogglebox debut last week, as part of a charity special in aid of Stand Up To Cancer.
And it turns out, if the whole “running the country” thing doesn’t work out for him, he could have a future on another of the UK’s most-loved celebrity reality shows.
During his Celebrity Gogglebox appearance, Burnham and Liverpool mayor Steve Rotherham sat down to watch a recent Strictly Come Dancing routine.
The PM claimed that he had second-hand anxiety watching Graeme Hall’s Salsa to Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca, having delivered a dance performance of his own to the same song just two years earlier.
“When I hear this music I get a clang of anxiety, I did this for Rob Burrow,” he said, referring to a fundraising event put on by sports star Rob Burrow’s motor neuron disease charity, dubbed the Burrow Strictly Ball.
“Honestly, never, ever again,” Burnham vowed.
Just days later, BBC Breakfast dug up footage of the Salsa performance, which also featured professional dancer Cara Tighe, and was set to Ricky Martin’s 1999 chart-topper.
Check out Andy Burnham’s routine in all its bum-shaking glory below:
Burnham said on Celebrity Gogglebox that we’re unlikely to see him dancing to Ricky Martin again in the future, and that if he did ever wind up on Strictly, he’d rather seize the opportunity to dance to “a Manchester icon”, citing Sit Down by James as one such example.
Over the weekend, despite some criticism from some of his political opponents about his Celebrity Gogglebox stint, Burnham told Radio 5 Live that he refused to apologise for “trying to lead with a bit of levity” and “positivity”.
“I’m trying to give the country a lift – trying to give the county some hope,” he insisted.
“That’s always my approach and it’s what I’m trying to do. It may not appeal to everybody when it comes to Gogglebox. It’s Stand Up To Cancer night and I’ve always been somebody who puts my shoulder behind the fight against cancer.”
