Starmer’s inability to deliver promised economic growth burdens Andy Burnham
Britain looks set to get a change of tone at the top, replacing stolid, unpopular Prime Minister Keir Starmer with popular, affable Andy Burnham.
But the charismatic Burnham may have difficulty — at least initially — distancing himself from policies set in motion by his predecessor.
Burnham, the former mayor of Greater Manchester who was sworn into Parliament hours after Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, will be constrained by the platform the centre-left Labour Party was elected on that decisively ended 14 years of Conservative rule in 2024.
It’s not entirely clear how he’ll navigate those limits and bring his unique brand of politics to the revolving-door post that would make him the 7th prime minister in a decade. He’ll lay out his economic vision in a speech next week. “At the moment, Andy Burnham is being almost hailed and held up as a folk hero that will save British politics,” said Matthew Flinders, politics professor at University of Sheffield.
“The tide is changing and the big issue for Andy Burnham is that when the world suddenly moves against him and he becomes a folk devil, will he sustain the pressure?” Burnham is currently the only contestant for the job of leading the Labour Party and the country, and will likely take over July 17 if no one else enters the race.
His return to the House of Commons follows a decade leading the region around the UK’s third-largest city, birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, which has enjoyed an economic revival during his tenure.
His main challenge will be to overcome Starmer’s inability to deliver promised economic growth, repair tattered public services and ease the cost of living.
Burnham highlighted those issues - along with housing and creating opportunities for young people - in a post on social media after Starmer said he was quitting.
“The country expects stability, seriousness and a continued focus on the issues that matter most and that is what it will get,” he said on X.
Burnham, who is widely regarded as sitting to the left of Starmer in the party, has said he’ll revive a sluggish economy without going beyond the current Government ‘s spending and borrowing plans. That pledge has helped reassure markets traumatised in 2022 after Prime Minister Liz Truss announced unfunded tax cuts and then withdrew them, leading to her 49-day record as Britain’s shortest-serving leader. “If you are a Labour prime minster from the soft left of the party, the markets don’t need that much invitation to panic,” said Mark Goodwin, a politics lecturer at Coventry University. “They will start from a position of skepticism. So he’d have to be very, very careful.”
He said Burnham will face a challenge “to convince people that this is something different, without the markets reading that as This is too different.” Burnham promotes what has been called “Manchesterism,” a business-friendly socialist approach that involves harnessing private investment for major projects and decentralising Government to give communities more control of housing, utilities, transportation and education.
Burnham’s lack of experience on the world stage could present a challenge improving the so-called special relationship with the US after President Donald Trump turned on Starmer. Trump described Burnham this week as a “town” mayor and said he heard he was “extremely liberal” and probably wouldn’t expand North Sea oil drilling - one of his frequent gripes about Starmer. (AP )
