Amina Taylor | Can Burnham fix Britain where six previous PMs failed?

The king is dead! Long live the king! In an (almost) bloodless passing of the guard it seems barring a significant change of course, Andy Burnham will be this country’s seventh prime minister in 10 years.

Sir Keir Starmer delivered an emotional goodbye message from the steps of Downing Street which essentially listed his achievements, alluded to the ruthless fashion in which he had been ditched by his own party and praised his wife and kids.

Like Sir Keir, I too was stunned at the speed at which the Labour Party essentially told the man who led them to a landslide at the 2024 election that he was no longer fit for purpose and should jump before being embarrassingly pushed.

Even as late as the Friday before his grand exit speech, Starmer was attempting to brazen it out, saying he would stand in any upcoming leadership contest. The lack of any groundswell of support in his favour told the soon to be ex PM everything he needed to know. The members had spoken. The party had spoken. You would now join the fast-growing list of ‘former British PM.’

Revolving door

Since the disaster that was Brexit came to pass, the UK has endured a revolving door of leaders who thought they had the antidote to fix a broken Britain. One day, like naming the wives of Henry VIII, school kids will rattle off the list of the fallen, failed and flops. At any rate, it’s at least a very good pub quiz answer (extra points for getting the order right).

David Cameron, defeated by the Brexit gamble gave way to Theresa May. The ‘Dancing Queen’ could not get her party to unite on a Brexit exit plan. Enter Boris Johnson whose hubris saw him undone. Cue Liz Truss and her reign of 44 days. My mortgage rate still hasn’t recovered from her time at the top table. Enter every Asian mother’s son-in-law dream, Rishi Sunak who was roundly defeated by Starmer’s Labour juggernaut at the ‘24 polls. After being in opposition for over a decade, Labour should have been on easy street. Instead, something was just not connecting.

The problem for Starmer was his six-year tenure as Labour Party leader was essentially defined by being the political antithesis of Jeremy Corbyn. Starmer was a Centrist, not as pro-US as Tony Blair, more TV-friendly than Gordon Brown and seen as a safe pair of hands by the establishment.

Except in this new political reality, voters are increasingly drawn to the politics that sits on either side of the centre. Nigel Farage already has the right in a chokehold with even Kemi Badenoch’s Conservatives struggling to gain traction. Zak Polanski leading the Greens at least shows there’s an alternative position.

Starmer’s media-created ‘U-turn Kier’ moniker did not help. He was developing a (sometimes unfair) reputation for being indecisive, not wanting to rock the boat and even when proven right (as he was in his decision to not join president Trump in his ill-fated Iran adventures) there’s still criticism.

Mountain to climb

If Andy Burnham is to succeed where Starmer has failed - emphasis on the IF- he has a mountain to climb. Convincing the party and the public that this wasn’t some backroom deal/Poundshop coup is its own obstacle. Starmer was many things, but he did have a huge mandate from the public to govern.

Burnham has always been a principled Labour man, not spectacular but he has a persona that engenders trust, and he’ll need to call on all the goodwill that might be available to him going forward. His tenure as mayor of Greater Manchester showed he has both sound leadership and managerial abilities but being the new PM is about more than that.

While laying out his vision for a better, fairer Britain he also must manage expectations. Political hindsight is one thing but making life and death calls in real time is a different beast. We’ll never know what Burnham would have done with the Israel/Palestine war. He was not called upon to take a position on Russia/Ukraine, the riots in Southampton, the continuing tensions in west Asia, the Strait of Hormuz, creeping fascism at home and abroad. Now he gets his turn at the Downing Street wheel. How will he steer a course for SS Britannica?

Burnham runs the risk of becoming the blank canvas on which we can all paint our idealistic dreams. This fictionalised version of the perfect politician would have always met the moment in exactly the fashion we would have dreamed. Reality rarely matches up with political fantasies. Just ask President Obama.

On to Burnham we can project all our own dreams for the next political period, one that is gearing up to be one of the most brutal and divisive in history.

The stakes could not be higher

Most Labour and undecided voters can agree on one thing - Labour can’t let its own internal divisions provide a clear path to No 10 for Nigel Farage and his ilk.

There is also the small matter of political optics - without a robust leadership challenge/process it will feel like a bloodless coup. Whatever mandate the people voted for across the country, party members inside will make the call to swap out the leader when he or she is no longer fit for purpose- even Margaret Thatcher found out the hard way that attempting to fight on when it’s clear you lost the backing of your own backbenchers is a road to nowhere.

Brutal irony

Perhaps Starmer exiting in this fashion underscores the ugly business of politics and political ambition, your back ever ready for the plunge of a knife a distinct possibility always. Somewhere Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott are in a quiet corner chuckling at the brutal irony of it all. Who would have thought Starmer would be the one out of a job before they were.

What could Burnham bring? How will he establish legitimacy? Bring a divided party and country together? I don’t have the answers to those questions. I’m posing them alongside millions in the UK and across the diaspora who want a more equitable Britain potentially taking a more principled stance on the global stage. Will he have enough time to make the case that the country voted for the right party in 2024, just with the wrong leader?

If Andy Burnham fails to solve that problem, his name will be added to the previous sacked six, a litany of those who came and went - unable to stick it out for party, much less the country.

Then it’s anyone’s game with all of us checking our metaphorical ticket to see if we have been drafted to serve as PM - dare I say we would do better than those absolute charlatans and grifters on the extreme right looking to sell us more political snake oil if this new Burnham experiment goes belly up.

Amina Taylor is a journalist and broadcaster. She is the former editor of Pride magazine and works as producer, presenter and correspondent with Press TV in London.