The No Hopers Vs Andy Burnham

From Andy Burnham's point of view, he couldn't have asked for a better week. His daily list of announcements went down with nmst official politics watchers, leaving those complaining, like the Tories, like the Daily Express, looking distinctly fogeyish. His social media output, particularly his chat with John Healey about pub snacks, also did the business of going viral on Facebook and TikTok. And the reward has been immediate. A +13 for Burnham's personal ratings, which is higher than Keir Starmer ever managed, and the first polling lead for Labour since April 2025. Moreincommon report a four-point advantage over Reform, which is significant seeing as their polling has tended to flatter Nigel Farage in the past. Burnham's team landed the first week then and has offered a pleasing change where Labour's former support are concerned, provided one does not look too closely.

Yet some people are unhappy. Some of them being those people whose services Burnham dispensed with upon entering Downing Street. Starmer got his best press in years as all the tabloids splashed with his relaxed "leaving drinks" at a North London boozer. Putting a brave face on failure, in other words. Others wasted no time briefing their media mates that they're upset and will exact a blood price for being robbed of their ministerial birth rights. Out of the gate first was the recently defenestrated Darren Jones, who criticised Burnham's energy VAT cut as coming from his digital ID card plan ... which was unfunded anyway. What was supposed to be a gotcha moment made Jones look spiteful. And incompetent, seeing as he revealed the project he was managing was but a wing and a prayer.

It's worth noting that there was little to no bellyaching of this character when Starmer made Cabinet an almost entirely right wing affair, purposely carving out those who then had Burnham sympathies. A move that, scant weeks later, caused our former Prime Minister a ripple of embarrassment. Nor is the discontent of the disgruntled likely to make much head way in the medium term. None of them are particularly appealing, have heavily relied on others to do the factionalising for them, and of those among them who engineered Starmer's rise did so not through cunning or manoeuvre but by bare-faced lying.

And why would they want to rock the boat anyway? 379 MPs (95%) of the PLP nominated Burnham as their candidate. Whether motivated by values/policy, career aspirations, or a desire to keep their seat, that's not much for out-of-favour people to work with. Second, we might have had a comms reset. There are new and returning faces around the cabinet table, but politically what Burnham has done has taken Labour back to where the government was before Angela Rayner resigned and Starmer carried out his right wing reshuffle. Yes, he's appointed a couple of Campaign Group MPs to very junior roles, but this is hardly making Leon Trotsky the head of the red army. This is also a government that's just handed the execrable Ian Austin a job. What then is there to be miserable about? Are they upset at the continuity on foreign policy? The continuity on bashing immigration? The continuity of blaming young people for the lack of job? I doubt it. The only difference between them and Burnham's team are bruised, overweening egoism, a Blairite fetish for ID cards, and woefully underdeveloped media skills.

This isn't to say opposition won't start emerging in the PLP as disappointment/disillusionment sets in. But what with the policy and agenda and personnel decisions announced so far, a big announcement on sorting out adult/elderly care due this week, a summer tour of Jeremy Corbyn-style public rallies, a welcome and overdue spotlight on Reform's murky finances, and MPs heading off on their holibobs, there's no one around for the out-of-sorts right to listen. And no differences worth stoking a row about. And thanks to their leading positions in the ancien regime, when dissent becomes fashionable again who are going to look at the likes of Steve Reed, Rachel Reeves, and David Lammy and say "Yes! These guys are the answer!"