Comrade Burnham takes over: He lurches Britain Left with Labour ‘coronation’ speech rant about the evils of capitalism – vowing return to the 1970s
Andy Burnham completed his ‘coronation’ as Labour leader today – and immediately lurched Left, blaming Margaret Thatcher and capitalism for the country’s problems.
The Makerfield MP will hark back to a time before the “wrong turns” of the 1980s as his “coronation” at the top of the party concludes.
He will hint at nationalisations and more public control at an event in London – and later a speech in the South East.
However, Burnham – who will officially replace Keir Starmer as PM on Monday – is still not expected to take any questions from the media.
Instead he has been posting soft-soap social media clips, including him chatting about how he likes his tea, whether he wears socks with sandals, and his disapproval of Yorkshire puddings with Christmas dinner.
Burnham is becoming Labour leader after a token process that saw him nominated by nearly 95% of MPs, weeks after he returned to the Commons in a by-election.
One of the few backbenchers who did not endorse him, Graham Stringer, said he did not want to sign a “blank cheque” – warning the former Greater Manchester mayor needs to be more up front about his intentions.
On another dramatic day in UK politics:
- Burnham hinted he will expend “quite a lot of political capital” on social care reforms – after previously backing a ‘death tax’ charge on inheritance;
- Close ally Steve Rotheram, the Liverpool Metro Mayor, has given another strong hint at a “wealth tax”, arguing that it should be targeted at raising spending for a “sector or area”;
- Sir Keir will not attend his successor’s official confirmation, after spending yesterday on a farewell visit to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv;
- Wes Streeting has denied a bizarre claim that he was spotted in tears near Burnham’s Parliamentary office.
In his address this lunchtime he will promise to be “unashamedly Labour in our priorities and in the decisions we take”.
He will say in a speech that his government will have the “courage to fix the big things that politics has neglected” and the “conviction to argue for our plans”.
Burnham will insist Britain took “a series of wrong turns in the 1980s” when “political power was centralised and economic power privatised”.
Making the economy work for people across the UK will require “a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years”, he is set to say.
He will pay a limited tribute to Sir Keir – who is not attending the event – for returning Labour to government, praising achievements on workers’ rights, the NHS and the passing of the Hillsborough Law.
Burnham was backed by 369 of the party’s 403 MPs, far surpassing the 81 needed, and secured the support of eight of the 11 unions affiliated with the party.
He steps into the job at a time when his party has trailed Reform UK in opinion polls for nearly 18 months and Labour will be hoping his presence will spark a bounce and turn around its fortunes.
Sir Keir has said he would have won the next General Election if he had not been ousted, but is “proud to hand over the party in good shape” to his successor.
But there is no clarity about Burnham’s policies, or how they might differ from Sir Keir’s agenda.
Business and unions have been alarmed at the idea of ‘Red’ Ed Miliband being made Chancellor – a prospect that seems to have receded.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is now being tipped for the crucial job.
The Daily Mail: continue reading
See Related Article Below
Beware the most Left-wing government for 50 years
Burnham’s promise to upend the longstanding economic settlement is either a threat or a potentially catastrophic hostage to fortune
[Andy Burnham’s] promise, repeated on Friday but voiced on a number of previous occasions, to upend the economic settlement of the last 40 years, is either a threat or a potentially catastrophic hostage to fortune.
“If we want an economy and a country that works for all people and places which to me should always be at the very core of Labourism, then it requires a new path to the one we’ve been on for the last 40 years,” he opined.
“The government I lead will confidently lay that path out starting next week, and that is why this change today is the most significant change moment in our politics for 40 years. It will take us to a country where life is more affordable, and all people and places are lifted from where they are now.”
Burnham does not, it seems, lack for ambition. One of his most powerful lines was: “The Right use the phrase ‘take back control’, but they are the ones who gave it away in the first place.” It was a clever condemnation of how privatisation took decisions away from politicians and put them into the hands of industry bosses and financial institutions. Burnham has pledged to reverse that.
This was one of five pledges Burnham announced from the podium – there are always lists of pledges in the Labour Party – with the others focusing more on style and culture than on policy.
For example, his rejection of factionalism, which he placed at the top of his list, will go down well with party members, but it included this line: “I have supported all our Labour leaders in my lifetime, because I believe a united Labour Party and Labour movement is the best hope for our country.”
One of the reasons I resigned from the party was because, under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, I could no longer pretend that Labour had the country’s best interests at heart. Boasting that he supported the most ill-suited, least qualified, most dangerous Labour leader in history might seem a black mark to anyone else. But not to Labour Party members and not to Burnham.
And on the subject of party unity, our new Prime Minister has ambitions to follow in the footsteps of the likes of Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan by inviting even the hard-Left into his government: “I haven’t made any decisions yet about who will be in [the Cabinet], but I will soon. And when I have, you will see it reflects all parts of our party.”
[…]
Overall, you could discern the excitement and optimism of the occasion. Sincere tributes to the outgoing leader could not disguise the party’s relief to be shot of him, to have a leader they believe gives them at least a fighting chance at the next election.
But there was also a nervousness, even an unease. Was Burnham right? Was this Labour’s last chance – one that, if missed, will not be forgiven by the public? You could, if you squinted hard enough, just about see the dawning of the realisation that for Labour, this is it; the stakes have never been higher.
The Telegraph: continue reading
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