Adem Somyurek tells Daniel Andrews to ‘pull his head in’

Sacked Labor powerbroker turned last-minute Democratic Labour Party candidate, Adem Somyurek, says Daniel Andrews should “pull his head in” and stop running a “presidential campaign”.

Mr Somyurek, who yesterday, less than two weeks after announcing his retirement from politics, revealed he’s running for the DLP in the state’s upper house, says he “would have advised him (Daniel Andrews) a long time ago to pull his head in, if I was still there”.

The DLP candidate for Northern Metro took aim at the Premier, who he says runs the government “like a factional operation” and “does deals on the side with no process”.

“What Andrews doesn’t do is he doesn’t have a proper cabinet, he doesn’t have collective decision-making, he has no scrutiny and he has no accountability,” Mr Somyurek told Neil Mitchell.

“It’s just one man making decisions based on gut feeling.”

Press PLAY below to hear the full interview

Mr Somyurek says Daniel Andrews, who is currently under investigation in an IBAC probe over his role in the awarding of two grants worth $3.4 million to a Labor-linked union on the eve of the 2018 election, must “be transparent in all those things”.

“He needs to start answering those questions. I can tell you, I’ve gone through an IBAC process and it’s not as restrictive as he makes out. He chooses not to answer questions,” he said.

Mr Andrews issued a statement over the weekend saying “regardless of any smear, innuendo or media reporting based on anonymous sources, the only IBAC matters I will comment on are those that are the subject of a final report”.

3AW Mornings invited Daniel Andrews to address Mr Somyurek’s claims on the program. Mr Andrews declined.

Image: Nine (Andrews) / Diego Fedele/Getty Images (Somyurek)