Burnham unopposed & likely to be PM by mid July

Re PR, it would need to be a different format to Scotland where you place votes for a party, but the party gives you the candidates they want. Better if you were to know exactly who will be in the parliament. Just look at the Scottish Greens idiots in the SP, there’s one person who apparently doesn’t even have a visa to last the end of his term. And you also just need to look at the mess they made when they were given a bit of power and all the gender self ID stuff.

Nobody will beat Burnham in an election but he has gone from not even in Westminster to PM in waiting almost overnight. At no point has he been tested on his policies and priorities - just some very syrupy soft focus PR interviews.

Someone should stand to do at least the basics in terms of being challenged as he has spent the last few months being all things to all people - that has to change in No 10 and really he needs to lay out his stall.

Since he will be a PM who wasn’t elected at the GE he would be wise to stress his intent to use the manifesto and not introduce major change which doesn’t have a mandate (which he has done in some of the soft focus interviews). We may have a parliamentary system but coming in from the outside entirely is different from an elected MP and cabinet minister taking over from the PM. Otherwise come the next election the campaign will be “vote Labour, get an outsider with a different manifesto”.

It is the same test for me. I voted Labour all my voting life and I’m over 60, except for the last one as I couldn’t get past a party that was supposed to be progressive but was totally regressive on women’s rights. I think there are many female former Labour voters who have been lost by Labour this way. We are likely to stay politically homeless. I’m in Scotland and recently either spoilt by ballot or didn’t vote. I nearly voted Tory based on my current Tory MPs good stance on this issue, but I couldn’t bring myself to.

Burnham historically has had stronger and longer connections with Mandelson - Whatsapp didn’t exist at the time. Mandelson has been a dominant figure in Labour for decades, anyone involved in government, shadow government or the upper end strategy/campaign groups in Labour will have “associations” with Mandelson, whatever they may say. He was a key figure in Labour throughout Burnham’s previous tenures.

Starmer took the risk of appointing Mandelson and it didn’t pay off. He isn’t the first to make that mistake, he probably won’t be the last. Trying to blame others for that appointment was probably the bigger mistake.

Streeting, like Rayner is one of the few actually WC success stories in the party. Its not a coincidence that both experience the same kind of negative campaigns that Abbott and McDonnell experienced when they were young enough to be in the running.

I think they should just get on with it, as he’ll probably win anyway. A contest is a good thing, but the continuity more important right now. I hope, regardless, that he lives up to his reputation.

On the gender ideology point, my hunch is that a great many politicians have said they support it to win brownie points with the electorate, having given the matter no thought at all and wrongly assuming it's like supporting gay rights, i.e. an easy win with no downside and (nowadays) wide popular support. I hope very much that Burnham is in that camp and will take the opportunity of a fresh start to look into this and backtrack very rapidly. There is a huge downside to supporting gender self-ID, which is that it adversely affects women's rights, LGB rights and the safeguarding of children and other vulnerable people. Supporters often also seem ignorant of how the human body works, well-known facts about child and adolescent psychology, sociological phenomena like social contagion, and how the law works, not to mention having very poor critical thinking skills. It's a litmus test for me. If people can't see the issues with any of that how can I trust them to be right about anything else?

Maybe you are a lot younger than some of us. He's been an MP before. He was often on Question Time. I don't mean this rudely, but look him up on Wiki. He's been around Westminster for longer than he's been Mayor of Manchester.

Edit to say, sorry, I haven't read all through and I see Gaspode has already filled in lots of details about him. Got to go. Bell's rung for the end of coffee break.

I am sure we will find out soon enough, once he is elected and the papers can run whatever stories they have planned.
Urgh.

I very much hope Burnham is not a disaster waiting to happen. We need stability and we definitely don’t need the Reform party.

He was a prominent member of the Blair government back in the 2000s. Elected to Parliament in 2001, he rose very fast and was Health Secretary in 2009-10. Beaten by Ed Miliband when he stood for election as Leader in 2010 and by Corbyn when he stood in 2015. Shadow Home Secretary under Corbyn, which must have been a trial (I can't stand Corbyn). Elected Mayor of Manchester in 2017 and has been re-elected twice since then.

I suppose people who were very young before 2010 and don't take much interest in politics wouldn't have heard of him unless they lived in Manchester.

Thank you, I thought I had missed something but clearly not. He is the one who kept losing in the internal shitshows, so why do they want him now? I don't understand why Labour get power and then throw it away by self electing someone people have no idea about unless they live in a town up North. All I have heard of him is that he is very supportive of Trans rights, which is going to take us back to 2018 and gives Reform an in.

From what I’ve seen Burnham’s ideas seem to have changed very little since he last stood for the leadership.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/aug/23/andy-burnham-labour-metropolitan-elite

I’m no fan of Streeting, so I’m pleased.

Streeting can not become PM because of his association with Mandelson, which ultimately has been Starmer's fatal wound.

Where is the Burnham Plan - if he has been ready to go for months as you claim why has he not published a detailed essay on his Burnham Plan for Britain?

My point was around this not being an ambush from the back (which is how you put it). His intent to run for the leadership has been clear for months; he sought to be selected for a constituency previously, which was blocked by KS.

Burnham is a senior Labour party figure. The Labour party's manifesto has cross party buy in from the Cabinet/Shadow Cabinet, the National Policy Forum (which includes party members and affiliated unions), as well as from the leader. The fact we have a parliamentary not a presidential system is the basis on which leaders can be changed without calling a GE. IMO, the path he will follow will be guided by the manifesto, adapting as he goes.

Also, why would he have published a detailed essay before he had even become an MP?!

I agree, he’s been excellent in health.

Likability is subjective though. Who decides this?

Not always necessary for this role either! Just get the job done.

I then hope mayors becoming or running for PM becomes common and rules are changed to facilitate this.

Worked out well for Boris. Oh, no, hang on....

Where is the Burnham Plan?

The Burnham plan is for Burnham to get into number 10. Don't think there is a plan beyond that.

He has and he now has Streeting’s supporters too. It’s debatable whether anyone else could muster the 81 supporters needed to stand against him.

Probably. He has a lot of the MPs onside already.

Really? Streeting is an absolute arse who has been awful in health and is a big mate of Mandelson. Why would you want him as PM?

Lots of countries have Mayors that go on to lead. It widens the talent pool, allows people to show skills at local levels, cities and regions can act as policy laboratories, there are lots of benefits. We are way too Westminster focused in the UK and that alienates a lot of people. The rules and the whipping in the HoC means it can be difficult to develop your own identity within but separate to the party.
I hope AB is a success (more for the country than my politics) and I then hope mayors becoming or running for PM becomes common and rules are changed to facilitate this.
Just because we have always done something doesn’t mean it’s good. The UK constitution evolves and this may be a good evolution.