The electorate is tired not of a particular party but of how all those parties do politics

So much has been written about Andy Burnham and will be again this week as his win creates for some, a rather wanted earthquake within the Labour Party. But if you take all three results together you begin to see a new, more clear political picture.

In Aberdeen South the Tories broke a 50-year curse by gaining a seat in a by-election in Scotland.

And while the SNP held on in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry, the depressingly low turnout shows a critical lack of enthusiasm for the nationalists - perhaps Murrell related – but more worryingly, politics in general.

What they all had in common was a message the electorate has been shouting loudly in three rounds of elections in 2024, 25 and 26. In each the vehicle was different but the demand the same: Change. Change at Westminster and change in Scotland.

And not just a change of Government.

For the past few weeks pundits have examined the implications of a Burnham win for the Labour Party and Reform to the point of exhaustion.

Is Burnham the man to defeat Reform? Will he be the next Prime Minister? Can he get the Labour Party back on course? In reality, those are secondary questions.

In the 2024 General Election it was clear that the country was done with the Conservatives’ chaos.

Just about every other political party benefitted. Apart from SNP who, also being a party in government, plummeted back to single figure representation at Westminster.

But in the 25 and 26 locals and devolved elections it became clear that it wasn’t just the Tory Government that people had had their fill of, it was that type of governance.

Again, every other party benefitted, and this time the SNP escaped the worst of the fall-out by hiding behind Labour’s failures. So, while Reform and the Greens were the vehicle which people chose in 25 and 26, it was Andy Burnham this time.

Which is where the Scottish results come in. Aberdeen South wasn’t just about oil and gas.

By dint of their fall from grace in both parliaments the Tories have lost power, so this time, unusually, they could be the party of protest.

Further down the coast in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry the protest was non-participation, a sort of: "Oh they are going to win anyway but let’s not allow the SNP to think we actually care."

The real challenge facing each of those three new MPs, indeed all of us in politics is to recognise the message. Burnham sounded close to getting it when he talked about an existential threat to the Labour Party.

I see it more of an existential threat to all of us. The electorate is tired not of a particular party but of how all those parties do politics.

They tried to tell us through Reform, but that wasn’t enough, and then the Greens. Now they are pinning their hopes on Andy Burnham. We all need to listen.