How Burnham's imminent arrival in Downing Street has changed the Commons atmosphere – Christine Jardine
Andy Burnham has given a tangible boost to Labour morale, but he now needs to do the same for the country
At some point today, Andy Burnham will walk through the door of Downing Street and the long-awaited reboot of the Labour government will be underway. The public, the media, and indeed other MPs like me are keen to hear just how the so called ‘King of the North’ is going to bring about the change that so many voted for two years ago and are still waiting to see.
There were clues in his address to the Labour party on becoming leader. He will put “hope in every heart” and give us back control of vital public services. But it’s that word ‘how’ is perhaps the most important he will have to address.
He must make his plan to get us out of stagnation clear, and he has to get not just the message but the language right first time. One of the biggest complaints about Keir Starmer’s premiership was the lack of clarity about what they were actually doing, or at least aiming to.
A new PM is no silver bullet
Now perhaps the biggest irony is that he was defenestrated just as his policies appeared to be making headway with inflation, immigration and NHS waiting lists in England.
But you can’t take the public with you if they don’t know where you are heading. Cutting the winter fuel allowance as almost your first act in government convinced too many people too quickly that this was not the journey for them.
It would, however, also be wrong, as Kemi Badenoch pointed out, to assume that a new PM is a silver bullet for the Labour government’s troubles. If nothing else, they should learn from the mistakes of the Tories’ premiership roundabout in a way that they themselves failed to.
A new PM – like any new captain – has to take the party team with them even more than the country. If they don’t, they will find themselves on the same downward spiral of division and factionalism which did for Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May and David Cameron. Too many recent PMs left it until the writing was on the wall before trying to hear what colleagues were thinking.
Relief and hope
Burnham will not be universally popular even within Labour ranks, but that 379 of 411 Labour MPs nominated him for leader suggests he is already addressing that listening issue in a way others failed to.
I have witnessed the PM-in-waiting these past few weeks as he worked various rooms to get to know his new colleagues rather than old chums from his previous term. While he has kept a respectfully low profile in the Chamber, rather than cast a shadow on Starmer’s final few days, he has been visible everywhere else.
So many commentators this past week remarked on the different atmosphere about PMQs or parliament in general. If only it had been like this before. And they are right.
What we have felt in recent days is a combination of relief and hope. Relief that the constant, damaging speculation over the future of the government and the instability it created were over. Hope that this might bring an end to the procession of short-term premierships.
Today might be a new start for the Labour government but it needs to be for the country, too.
Christine Jardine is Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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