What is so great about Andy Burnham?

[jeanne16]

Just that really. I keep hearing what a great job he has done as mayor but never hear any examples of what he has done.

Btw Boris Johnson was quite a successful mayor of London and we all know how that turned out.

Me too. He was elected PM. Yes, I now we vote for our local MP blah blah but Starmer made Labour electable.

Absolutely nothing

It's interesting isn't it @TheLadyofMisrule that so many people on MN (and elsewhere) seem to say that their biggest problem with Starmer is that he's not far left enough. But Corbyn was absolutely unelectable, as proven by two elections.
Starmer was the one who broke through from the Tories.

And as much as everyone says "he got it because it was anyone other than the tories" there was absolutely an "anyone but Corbyn" sentiment before that,.

Starmer made Labour electable.

I thought that was more the Tory debarcle.

To answer the question he's currenly popular with the party, mps and voters who've moved away from voting Labour. Whether that translates into a being a good PM who knows.

I thought Starmer had been a poor opposition leader who didn't do the planning and I feel that's proven true in government and I think he actually pretty bad at politicking.

Hmmm. He isn’t know for his honesty.

I think Starmer is fine being fairly centrist to right in Labour. No one voted for a left wing government they just voted the Tories out because they were chaotic. I just wish he had a plan and a vision of what he wanted to do he could share properly. His communication is abysmal, he has no ability to list the achievements Labour have made and help the electorate see what they are doing. But he’s also not planned for power. He was offered training for him and his ministers on how to work with the civil service and implement policy and he turned it down. Blair had done this . I thought his idea of having online targets that were updated so people could see achievements was brilliant, but it never happened. There doesn’t seem to be a coherent plan, which along with poor messaging even hides what has been successful.

Known

I thought his idea of having online targets that were updated so people could see achievements was brilliant, but it never happened

I thought that was there @RobinStrike ? I've been following This site - https://pledgeprogress.co.uk/ to see what they are doing

There's also this one - Full Fact’s Government Tracker - https://fullfact.org/government-tracker/

Thanks @Danhausenrocks I hadn’t seen those. They aren’t government produced, they are funded by donations to fullfact. They are really useful though. I wonder why the government one never happened? It was supposed to be under the mission headings and then by dept I think? I remember thinking it was something that every government should have on their official website permanently as a way of tracking whether they were keeping to their manifesto.

I don’t know @RobinStrike

i just like to monitor what’s ACTUALLY happening rather than what the Daily Mail/The Sun are claiming is happening.

i think the biggest threat to the UK by far is the media.

ive always been a swing voter but I genuinely think if we oust Starmer now, in five/ten years time, history will look back and say WTF? A bit like when they ousted Teresa May. She would have been MUCH better handling COVID than Boris,,,

That image has killed my king of the north Andy Burnham crush stone dead 💀

I think this might make Burnham successful. The problem with Labour governments, is and frankly always had been, the Labour Party. They cannot pull together at all either for their party or the country. They hate Labour governments because Labour governments have to actually have a real budget, take account of the markets etc. Burnham is not ' soft Left' or whatever they are calling themselves now. He is whatever he needs to be at any given time. The Left have caused a massive disruption to the party, made the government look ridiculous, have put themselves in a position where they have told everyone they have 400 MPs yet not one of them that they think it's suitable to be their leader so have to parachute someone else in. They will have no choice but to shut up after they have embarrassed their whole party and Burnham turns out to have been 'Left' in order to win the party, and then goes back to his Blairite roots when he needs to win an election. Starmer did the same but has no leadership qualities, charisma or power to shut them up.

He's been a stalwart trans ally for many years and is (hopefully) a conviction socialist politician

He’s a toffee. I’d like to think he’ll sort out VAR.

I enjoyed the book he co wrote with Steve Rotheram. He is intelligent. And charismatic. I am less convinced by his record on VAWG and the problem of rape gangs in the NW.

He's very popular where I live. I don't love any politician but as they go, he's one of the better ones. He has done a lot for Greater Manchester, and what I like is that he hasn't just purely focused on Manchester city centre, other parts of GM, some of which have big challenges, have also benefited. I do think he's a good Mayor and it's actually a bit annoying he's going! I don't know if he'd make a good PM, but I would give him a chance. I think he's the only person that would make me vote labour again (not that I will have the chance to vote for him!)

Me too

he’s the only politician i know with principles who can seem
to be trusted

I think being pm would ruin him - he’d have to compromise his principles

His passion.

I like Andy. Here he is on the campaign trail-

From a Labour perspective he has qualities Starmer lacks.
An ability to get sell policies, ideas, galvanise people. And to talk in a way that is interesting to listen to. He has ideas, judgement.
You don’t get to manage Manchester and be someone who is incompetent.

Ok so the shorts were a mistake.

But. I’ve been at many events and heard him speak and he is genuinely very gifted in terms if his ability to speak from the heart and get people to follow him. I have never seen him use notes. There is no doubt he is in it for the right reasons and has done a fabulous job in GM. As in a measurably fantastic job.

Why isn't Sadiq Khan in the running?

Was gonna say the same. He also seems to use eyeliner. Sometimes looks like he’s been crying (but I think it’s the dark lashes).

Don’t know much else about him as don’t live in the UK so not up on UK current affairs beyond headline stuff. No idea as to whether he’d make a good leader for Labour I’m afraid…

But not the rest of him!

I listened to him on Rest is Politics Leading podcast and was impressed. He articulated my frustration with bi-partisan Westminster culture and talked about how much could be done when cross part cooperation was valued more than falling into line behind the whip.
He feels like a leader and undoubtedly has more charisma than KS or WS, more electable than AR.
I would consider voting for Labour if articulated values that are important to me. We need moral leadership more than we have ever done. We need tolerance and inclusion, we need someone who will make the legal and moral case for immigration. We also need a leader who can effectively explain the impact of the international super rich on working people’s cost of living.