There is nothing authentic about Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham and his allies have supposedly been incandescent with Wes Streeting for a “transparent” attempt to derail Andy Burnham’s by-election, through the appalling tactic of highlighting that our lord and saviour Andy of Manchester, like Streeting, proudly and publicly supports rejoining the EU. Apparently, this “reeks of desperation and selfishness.”

Has nobody told wily Wes that Andy has a God-given right to this seat? That the politics and principles of the people of Makerfield, and their right to choose their constituency MP, has no place in getting in the way of Andy’s path to Number 10 Downing Street? Remember, when Andy said he wanted to rejoin the EU, he was speaking to a fringe at the Labour party conference, dominated by tantrum-throwing remainers who he needed to appeal to in anticipation of a potential leadership bid. Now that he is trying to win a predominantly Leave constituency, of course he doesn’t want to rejoin the EU. Has Wes not heard of triangulation? Is he not a child of the New Labour years? Honestly!

What Wes needs to understand is that this is going to be a coronation and no one is to stand in Andy’s way. And now that Andy is set to cross the Rubicon, his destiny must not be interrupted.

Except he is less Julius Caesar, more Joffrey from Game of Thrones. He will fight no general election — clearly expects to not have to fight a leadership election, and seems to be irritated by the fact he even has to fight a by-election. The man is not an MP and is still drafting his plan for his first 100 days in power. The level of entitlement almost makes you want to support Starmer … 

Whatever Burnham may feel about his claim to the throne, the opening of his election campaign shows he is yet another greasy-pole climbing, power hungry politician who will say whatever needs to be said to whomever is sitting in a room with him in order to climb that little bit higher. Just a few days ago, Burnham was committed to rejoining the EU, and believed in ditching the fiscal rules to borrow more. Both of these have been ditched within hours of the opening salvo.

The electorate will hate it. If the voters of Makerfield don’t wake up to who they are electing in the short few weeks before they go to the polls, voters in the country will by the next election. Gone are the days when the electorate would tolerate politicians of the kind of Burnham. You can stomach a politician having no principles if GDP per capita is climbing handsomely each year. Who cares if a politician says one thing to one group and another to another group when you are so much better off than you were two years ago. When we talk about wanting politics out of our lives that’s ultimately what we mean — not that we want better, more honest, more principled politicians. We just want politicians who leave the country richer at the end of their time in office than at the start.

But what about that video — the one with those songs from Elbow and Oasis — I hear Lewis Goodall cry. Wasn’t it so inspiring? Look at the way he sipped a pint and fist bumped that bloke on the street while complaining about neoliberalism and trickle down economics that has sapped the power and vitality of towns and cities across formerly industrial England. 

To begin with such a catastrophically flawed analysis of Britain’s economy tells us that whatever Burnham’s successes in Manchester — successes that are wildly overegged anyway — Burnham will be a disaster as prime minister. Britain’s economic model is less trickle down, more Niagara Falls. As Max Tempers pointed out on X recently, the UK’s minimum wage as a percentage of average earnings is now higher than the Soviet Union’s at its peak (66 per cent compared to 60 per cent ). The ratio between the earnings of the top 10 per cent  and bottom 10 per cent  in the UK is also similar to the Soviet Union’s at its most compressed. Whatever these policies may poll individually, their results are despised by an electorate that is desperate for leadership, and desperate for growth. 

He is just as bad as the rest of them

What is really scary about Burnham is that his proclivity to simply say whatever most appeals to the people he needs to appeal to will prove disastrous in government. His absence of any mandate means already powerful backbench MPs will be able to hold him to ransom. We will see the inevitable result of the fact that Labour MPs don’t understand the difference between debt and deficit, between gilt yields and exchange rates, written all over our borrowing costs, employment figures, economic growth rates, inflation statistics and more besides.

So yes, Andy may be able to connect with the bloke at the pub. But when the price of that pint increases, the bloke at the pub’s taxes go up, and the pub ultimately closes under the pressure of tax, regulation and energy prices, we’ll see that sanctimonious smile wiped swiftly off his face by the time he faces his reckoning with the electorate. They very much will be looking back in anger as they realise that he is just as bad as the rest of them.