To find Andy Burnham’s sudden rise to the top odd?

Well I know what a fanatic is but what is a fanaticist? Is it a penchant for fantasy novels - a remnant from his English degree at Cambridge?
I would like to know what Andy’s favourite novel is. Brave New World or Middlemarch?!

Yes, he gives 15% of his income to a Homeless charity. Must be awful!

I thought I knew pretty much all about Andy Burnham, but a couple of days ago, someone on another forum opined that he "lacked experience" to be PM, so I googled his wikipedia.

My goodness, he's got LOADS of relevant experience, including high level ministerial posts! He's much better equipped than most former PMs.

I agree and I voted Labour to get Blair in.
Major has become a bit of an elderly statesman with an interesting overview.
(Although I always think of Edwina Currie whenever I see him!)
Blair has an ego as big as Trump’s. Absolutely driven by ego and greed.
His time in office will always be marked by the war on terror, but before that he did some decent things for the country, especially helping young working families.
Burnham is also memorable to me because of his work around the Hillsborough campaign. It took him a while, and it was far from perfect, but he did promise to help and did.

Thanks. Badenoch completely denied she would do such a thing a few days ago IIRC. So she is at odds with her MPs it seems.

Are you implying some sort of conspiracy is happening? It all seems pretty clear to me. Yes, it is fixed, but openly so. Things have been building up to this for a long time. The Labour Party is in the weird position of having an enormous majority in the House of Commons but being very unpopular and ineffectual. They think this is because of Keir Starmer. Time will tell if they're right or not, but once he'd lost his own party's confidence he was dead in the water as Leader.

They need to sort this out asap or they will lose catastrophically at the next election in 2029. They have turned to the only senior Labour politician who's been able to get the support together to be elected as Leader. One of his supporters stood down from his own seat so that Burnham would have a fairly easy by-election to fight. He has easily managed to get himself elected as an MP and that was the last hurdle cleared.

Conservative MPs are urging Kemi Badenoch to do a deal with Reform before the next general election, The Telegraph can reveal.

A growing chorus of Conservative politicians hopes to “unite the Right”, an electoral strategy in which Reform or Conservative candidates would stand aside in certain seats while the parties would establish a non-aggression pact, to avoid splitting the Right-wing vote.

Calls for co-operation among the rival parties are becoming increasingly urgent, amid speculation that a future Labour leader could call a snap general election to ratify their position and strengthen their personal mandate.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/06/28/tory-mps-and-donors-urge-badenoch-to-make-deal-with-reform/

I thought Kemi had ruled coalition/pact out?

Andy Burnham has been accused of "power without accountability" by refusing to take questions from journalists following his first major speech.

The Makerfield MP, who is on course to become prime minister in three weeks' time, was using a speech in Manchester to set out his vision for the country.

But the senior Labour politician did not follow the common practice of taking questions from reporters following the speech.

https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2026-06-29/burnham-refuses-to-take-journalists-questions-after-speech-setting-out-vision

Andrew Marr was complaining about this yesterday evening;

Andy Burnham may not yet be through the door of No 10 - but that’s not stopped the incoming prime minister from ruffling some feathers amongst the nation’s press.

Journalists heading to his major speech in Manchester [were] told they won’t be able to question him on his policies - despite the event being billed as his opportunity to set out his economic vision for the country just weeks before he starts running it.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/andy-burnham-speech-questions-media-b3004854.html

Compared to the scale of fraud, back handers, lobbying for money, Epstein, Mandelson, etc., a middle aged bloke shagging a co-worker isn't really a big thing. It's pretty tame!

But he banged on about sleaze and " back to basics" when he was shagging Edwina Currie!

Major was probably the last "sensible" Chancellor/PM, but unfortunately wasn't particularly popular and had no chance at all when up against a personality like Blair.

Major was another who thought things through. A bit like Phil Hammond as Chancellor who was roundly ridiculed and criticised being called "Spreadsheet Phil" as he actually wanted to work things through for himself. Rather then being criticised/ridiculed, we need more Chancellors like Hammond and Major who try to understand their remit and the changes they're being asked to choose. When they don't bother trying to work it out themselves, you end up with Chancellors like Brown, Sunak and Reeves making huge mistakes.

It was interesting that Major spoke out recently about the constant changing of the PM. I find that Major is appreciated more now ... and more than when Blair says something.

John Major did not lose the election subsequent to his becoming prime minister, when Neil Kinnock was leader of Labour. He lost the one after that, to Tony Blair.

Yes. I imagine it was intended as a humorous comment.

The Tories aren't finished, but they can't win on the basis of one person alone, i.e. Kemi. No one else seems to get any media presence and she can't be a "one woman show" if they think she can win the next GE. Whether it's intentional to keep putting her up in preference to anyone else, or whether there currently isn't much alternative "talent" in the Tory party, they need to make changes. We should be seeing and hearing from far more shadow ministers and they should be being trained in media matters to start making more of an impact. I struggle to think of who the Tory shadow ministers are as we seem to see/hear so little from them - it's always Kemi.

so you haven't ever paid any attention to politics but now you've suddenly woken up Can't help but wonder what's prompted this

Well, they do say familiarity breeds contempt.

Wasted vote

Definitely not - my MP is the Shadow Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology.

I genuinely thought you had switched allegiances to Farage

Pragmatic - coalition/electoral pact, although I do admire Farage for his anti-EU efforts.

Trouble is that we've had three "annointed" prime ministers who previously DID have high cabinet positions, being Chancellor, who turned out to be unpopular and short lived PMs leading to their parties losing the subsequent GE, i.e. John Major, Gordon Brown and Rishi Sunak. Holding "high office" experience is certainly not an indicator of becoming a successful PM.

Let's all make a date in a couple of years time to discuss this again. I grew up with stories like the hare and the tortoise ...

I would return the favour but it would be a veeeeeery long list of initials!😄

The problem with the Tories is that after Brexit all the good and competent ones left or were pushed to the back and the real losers took over. That does not mean the Tory Party is finished for good. Small c Tories represent Britain at large. In fact, Labour are selling the story that the Tories are finished so they can take over the centre ground. But that will piss a lot of old school Labour off as well.

I do agree that he’s held cabinet posts however, I am concerned that somebody unelected as PM, when the country is in the state it’s in and with no recent parliamentary experience is not necessarily the best person to get us out of the mire that we’re in at the moment.