AIBU to wonder why Burnham attracts so much negativity?

[Conicallychronic]

Why is there so much negativity towards politicians and Burnham in particular? Burnham hasn’t really done anything yet but so many on here appear to hate him.

I agree that politics has been a shambles recently but what’s the alternative?

Personally I feel a degree of optimism that we may have a PM that actually turns things around for us.

Everybody knows that hard working people are about to be taxed to the hilt for the non hard working people. I am please that he's scrapped digital ID though, so credit where credits due.

Eh? Guardian, metro, independent, mirror, left wing.

I don’t trust the hype. I remember him as plain old Andy Burnham who wasn’t particularly noticeable and I find all this putting him on a pedestal somewhat alarming. The behaviour of the Labour Party towards him feels desperate - frenetic and unreal, with slight shades of the opposite to the ‘30 minutes of Hate’ etc, or that bit in Death of Stalin where everyone has to carry on clapping.

THIS.
I too think he is a great guy. He connects with us and wants ( genuinely) to make a difference.

Give him a chance

He sounds well meaning but niaeve

I’m all for hoping he’s a good PM. Obviously it’s in all our interests.

BUT- we need to get away from this chopping and changing PMs. It’s takes years to make real changes- Keir only had two years and I think he should have done his term for good or bad- you have to ride the storm sometimes.

I don’t like Starmer but I think he should have stayed.

It’s as though MPs look at the media and think “oh shit , we’re doing badly in the polls. We better get rid of our leader now and make ourselves more popular”.

By the age of 25 I had only known 3 PM’s. Thatcher ,Major and Blair.

Ive known 3 PMs in the last two years - we need to stop this turnaround!

He was saying about bringing people together but already seems to have surrounded himself with cronies. I'm not happy about it. Voted Labour last time to get Starmer who seemed like a safe pair of hands. Burnham seems like he has a different agenda altogether. Also agree with pp that Number 10 North is wasting money we don't have, we can't move the Houses of Parliament right now.

You can’t run two main offices like this. Think of the cost.
Id rather that the PM stayed up north and let the rest stay in London. At least they could face time each other!
It smacks of wanting your cake and eating it doesn’t it.

Increase in the personal tax allowance is off. Got a feeling this is a sign of things to come.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2026/07/21/burnham-backs-down-on-income-tax-giveaway/

https://archive.ph/c6XaW

Starmer got exactly the same from the bots.

They are mainly ardent Conservatives or Reform voters who would prefer to see the country fail under Burnham to give their own party a chance than back him to succeed.

Lovely sweeping statements about anyone who criticises Burnham. Many of his his most ardent supporters seem more interested in defending man than scrutinising the policies. Oh wait, there aren't any. Unlike some, many of the politically homeless aren't blinded by the emperor's new clothes, we are looking for substance.

I stand by my statement entirely. You need only to read the threads to see numerous examples.
Why should I be 'lovely'? There's nothing lovely about gleefully wishing for the failure of the government, maligning yet another PM, who, you're quite right, hadn't even set out his stall when it started.
And you'll note I said 'mainly'. There have been one or two posters who have been fair, been positive about some cabinet appointments and said they will wait and see, despite voting for other parties. The grown ups, who would rather see the country succeed than get one over on people who think differently from them. But this thread isn't about them, is it? Nor is it about Burnham's supporters. The OP asked why the negativity.

He’s appointed 2 people to his cabinet who recently had to resign due to conduct in office - Louise Haigh had to resign after evidence she committed fraud and Angela Rayner is back as housing minister less than a year after she had to resign when she didn’t pay stamp duty on her second property which was tax evasion.

this does not speak of good judgment or integrity.

We don't know what he has weighed in the balance against these women's faults.
No one is going to be perfect. There is always going to be a balance of strengths and less desirable traits. We won't know if his judgement has been poor until we see how the women perform in their roles.

Exactly how on earth has the Rayner thing all been forgotten?! Yes hmrc say she didn't do anything illegal but that does not mean she wasn't stupid and she didn't avoid payments through incompetence by not checking her facts thoroughly. She worked in the Commons! Surrounded by legal and tax experts she could ask for tips rather than Brenda or whomever from the local office.

How has King Andy got there surrounded by gormless halfwits who were previously kicked out?!

Labour missed public feedback with these posts right up until Starmer going. Even when 200 plus Labour MPs were canvassing for Burnham in Makerfield they thought it was ‘bots’ only who didn’t want him.

I think he behaved badly, by putting himself forward in spite of the fact Starmer had only been in post two years. I also loathe the whole coronation thing. The newly crowned King, it is so against what Labour and Socialism is all about. He is a manwho thinks a lot of himself. He won’t take criticism well.

Yes they were a right pair but got their places legitimately and fairly. He has just installed himself as PM without a fair process. What are labour thinking, surely someone already in post as an MP if not in the actual cabinet would have been a better choice.

It once again shows their absolutely crap problem solving and organisational skills.

It's the merry go round of constantly changing Ministers that is destructive. My DH works for the NHS and this is their third Health Minister in 2 years.

They orchestrated it because of mass public opinion. They were responding to the intense levels of public criticism of Starmer.

I have never noticed such a group of overtly personal ministerial appointments. You have to say that Burnham has definitely honoured all of those who came out for him. The latest is going to have to be made a Lord by Burnham - Anas Sarwar, who spoke out against Starmer in February (but was then put down by the other ministers).

They didn't have to ' respond' to it if as people say, it was just the 'Right wing press' causing trouble. They have a massive majority. They could have stuck it out and supported their own government. Mid term governments are always unpopular. The backbench MPs were hell bent on undermining the government right from the start. Starmer tried to play hardball with them and they engineered a coup. They were rumblings to get Burnham in a year ago when the election was 2 years ago. Ridiculous. And Burnham is stuck with these same idiots, so good luck to him getting any sensible policies through.

Louise Haigh’s fraud was a work phone from her first job that she thought was stolen but later turned out to have been lost at home. Hardly crime of the century.

I think over the past 10 years an instant distrust of pm’s has come about probably because of how much disruption/change/lies there has been in no 10.
personally I’m rooting for him to improve things