Andy Burnham: A Prime Minister Tested by Power

Behind every political figure, there is a search for an inheritance, a lineage, a political tradition. Britain’s new prime minister is no exception. Yet it is difficult to know exactly where to place him, and his political family is a mixed one. Andy Burnham could be seen as the natural offspring of Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn, a synthesis of New Labour and a more interventionist strand of the Labour left. He is positioned further to the left than his predecessor, Keir Starmer, while being nowhere near as “red” as Corbyn. Burnham himself describes his politics as “pro-business socialism.”

Because Andy Burnham has revealed relatively little of himself — he did not have to campaign for the job, but instead benefited from a lightning-fast coup — his first steps in office are being closely watched. In his first appearance before the House of Commons, as Parliament returned on September 1, the new prime minister lamented Britain’s “decline.” Burnham may feel that he has finally reached the place he has dreamed of for three decades, but he believes that “Britain is not where it should be.” He identifies two culprits: Margaret Thatcher and Brexit.

“Since the 1980s, this country has taken a series of wrong turns: political power was centralized, economic power was privatized, the country was deindustrialized. Then came Brexit,” the new occupant of Downing Street said.

Unlike his ill-fated predecessor, however, Andy Burnham is careful not to dwell too heavily on gloom. When Keir Starmer came to power two years earlier, he had promised little more than blood, sweat and tears. His assessment of the state of the United Kingdom was certainly clear-eyed, and his rhetoric largely free of demagoguery. But his constant emphasis on the state in which the Conservatives had left the country, rather than on any positive vision, eventually demoralized both the British public and the business community. Everything seemed weighed down, difficult, doomed to failure. Later attempts to correct this bleak narrative proved ineffective. Burnham, by contrast, has avoided the pessimistic trap. It is possible to give people “hope,” he insists.

To set the tone, following his appointment in July, Burnham embarked on a summer tour across the country. A much better communicator than Starmer, he launched a major “listening tour,” designed to reconnect with an electorate from which Labour has drifted away.

“This month, I’m leaving Westminster and coming to your towns. Not for the photo opportunities, but because I want to hear directly from people in their communities,” he wrote in an article before setting off.

Again and again, the man from the North denounces the divide between London and the rest of the country. Westminster, he argues, has become a symbol of a distant political establishment disconnected from people’s everyday realities. He wants to bridge that gap. Highly active on social media, particularly TikTok, he has cultivated an easy-going image as a leader who is close to the ground — drinking a pint at the pub …