Downing Street has said that Prime Minister Andy Burnham writes "most of his own speeches", after a member of his team was photographed using the ChatGPT AI agent to seek feedback on a draft of his address to the Welsh Labour conference on Saturday. The picture, published by the Mail on Sunday, appears to show the aide drinking Prosecco while working on the speech on an afternoon train from London Euston to Holyhead. A No 10 spokesperson said: "The PM writes most of his own speeches. An aide sought feedback on a speech draft that had already been written." It is understood that the ChatGPT suggestions, which included a request to make the speech "a little more emotive", were not ultimately used.

According to the Mail, the chatbot had written: "I prefer the second (passage). It moves from the miners to their families to the wider community, showing how the experience of industrial work created bonds well beyond the workplace." The episode attracted criticism from the opposition, with one critic saying Burnham's "man-of-the-people act has been exposed as a sham".S1S2

The speech itself focused on the importance of "industry" in giving people a "deep sense of belonging", describing the workplaces in Wales 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". Criticising Margaret Thatcher's legacy, Burnham said the country "took some wrong turns in the 1980s that shattered the way of life for communities up and down Britain", pointing to "economic power privatised, political power centralised and, overall, a loss of agency in places up and down Britain".S1S2

Burnham argued that the closure of "the mines, factories, steelworks" was felt everywhere, and that for around 40 years communities had lacked the power they needed to turn things around.S1