AIBU to feel like Andy Burnham is an impostor?

[NotABeliever]

Whenever I see him on TV, my first reaction is a jolt of disbelief — as if Andy Burnham has somehow staged a stunt and pushed out the person who actually earned the right to be in Number 10 but somehow everyone is ok with this. It feels like a con, like he’s occupying a role that isn’t his.

What’s strange is that I don’t dislike Andy Burnham, and I’m hardly a devoted Starmer supporter. Yet something about the way Starmer was removed and replaced so abruptly feels fundamentally wrong and unserious . I keep thinking: Starmer is the one who won the election, not Burnham — so how is Burnham now the Prime Minister? It feels like a huge injustice.

I understand that in the UK we elect a party, not a president, and that whoever leads the party becomes PM. But even within that system, it’s hard to accept that a sitting Prime Minister can be shown the door simply for not being popular enough. With three years until the next general election, how can anyone confidently claim Starmer would have lost? Polls swing constantly.

It just feels like a moment of madness — a sudden upheaval that’s left us starting from scratch with a new cabinet and a new agenda, right when the previous team was in the middle of governing and getting on with the job. I can’t shake the sense that something about this isn’t right, and I’m struggling to make peace with it.

I hear he’s one of those lizard people, like King Charles or the Pope. Sent by the same aliens who built the pyramids, are responsible for vapour trails and who put all the little microchips in vaccines .

He is a politician...

I feel cross with Starmer for rolling over so easily and walking away from the responsibility he was elected to, and then I think the sort of person who would be so spineless shouldn’t be running the country!

It also doesn’t feel right that Burnham should just waltz into power without even a leadership contest… not sure who else I’d want instead though.

Did you feel the same when Truss replaced Johnson and then Sunak replaced Truss?

Or Boris Johnson when he first took over?

This is our system. We vote for a party. We don't have a president.

You can’t blame Starmer for going; every time I’ve seen him since he looks ten times happier.

I’ve met and know people who know Andy Burnham and by all accounts he’s a genuinely nice guy who wants to change things for the better.

I’d have supported Starmer staying more if his failure just meant a Conservative government next time round. This time it doesn’t. The fascists are at the gates and we really need a popular, effective leader who can connect with voters. For all his good points, Starmer simply didn’t have the ability to do so; his oratory was awful, his charisma severely lacking, and indecisiveness plain to see.

But despite all of that he won a huge - albeit shallow - majority two years ago. Who’s to say he couldn’t do it again? Who’s to say that maybe people don’t care that much about what he was lacking as long as he was doing a good job?

Truss replacing Johnson yes because Johnson won a big majority.
sunak replacing Truss no because what Truss did was dangerous and she had to be removed (and she hadn’t won a GE)

I feel a bit like that @NotABeliever . I'd like to feel that things will get turned around by the new PM but there's something stopping me.

Or Boris Johnson when he first took over

Oh, yes, I’d forgotten that one - he replaced May mid-term. Did May also replace someone mid-term?

Agree, feels like someone decided he should be prime minister and now he is!
I would have been happier of his policies had been debated and robustly defended as part of a leadership contest.

It's all very cynical but I have little sympathy for Starmer. He lied his way into the Labour leadership in cahoots with Peter Mandelson and Morgan Mcsweeny so there is an element of poetic justice there.

I Just hope Burnham's spads and advisors are half human. The ones weve had over the last 15 years have all been creepy weirdos.

Couldn't agree more. This is exactly how I feel. If there had been an actual leadership contest it would be more acceptable but the snide, weasley way he's wormed his way in is grim. Twice tried to be leader, twice failed (deservedly, he was poor both times) scuttled off to Manchester and left Starmer to do the hard graft of making Labour electable again. Then rather than support the elected Labour government he pretty much immediately starts plotting to depose Starmer. Feels like as soon as there was a chink of an opportunity he was straight in there wielding the knife. All very grubby.

Half the Labour PLP have never worked with him and I suspect will be a bit taken aback when they realise how lightweight he is.

Here we are - did a bit of Googling:

You talk like that is unusual, but about half of British Prime Ministers become PM without winning at a general election to do so. In reverse order:

• Boris Johnson - appointed PM when Theresa May stepped down
• Theresa May - appointed PM when David Cameron stepped down
• David Cameron - became PM after general election
• Gordon Brown - appointed PM after Tony Blair stepped down
• Tony Blair - became PM after general election
• John Major - appointed PM after Margaret Thatcher stepped down
• Margaret Thatcher - became PM after general election
• James Callaghan - appointed PM after Harold Wilson stepped down

I think May was the only other one appointed unopposed. Not sure about John Major.

I agree, and I can’t fathom why we now have previous ministers back in positions power who have been found to have committed fraud, tax evasion etc - it’s a disgusting & cynical way to treat the general public. In what industry could you be fired for gross misconduct and then be hired back by the same firm and it be considered reasonable?

There'd have been a leadership campaign if anyone else chose to run. That's not Burnham's fault.

Nobody’s mentioned yet about how the results of the May council elections were utterly abysmal for Labour.

Starner was stained from the recent Mandelson episode, and reading between the lines had alienated several senior politicians by being inept / untrustworthy, and Reform had real momentum back then, I think a couple of months ago it just have felt like an existential moment for the Labour Party

I can’t see any way in which Starmer was going to win the next election. The local election results were the final straw and Labour knew a change was needed. Too many traditional Labour voters are alienated, struggling and finding other people to vote for.

Burnham is an imposter and the not in my name is a real thing. He has no business running at all given he was out of politics for ten years!! A decade. It is utter madness op. It is a coup.

He has been forced in by Angela and her heavies on the hard left. It’s outrageous, with no mandate at all - now Burnham is still acting like a mayor tinkering around with the bloody buses when we are £3 TRILLION in debt!!

We urgently need a GE..

It doesn’t mean he should be the Prime minister though does it! Just because there is no one else. Let the people decide! It’s a democracy or supposed to be one.

It is a disgrace.

John Major won a leadership election following the downfall of Margaret Thatcher. I was about 11 and utterly gripped by it all.

The opinion polls told you, and him, and everyone else, that he couldn't do it again .

That's not our system. We have a parliamentary system.

This has been explained millions of times.

It was the same with Truss, with Sunak.

Yes, OP. I completely agree with every single word you say. I look on him with a mix of curiosity and bewilderment. How the heck is he PM? I hate what British politics has become with our revolving door culture.

For Haigh, it likely wouldn't affect employment as the (let's be realistic, small) offence is spent.

For Raynor, given she was cleared by HMRC, many firms would never have fired her in the first place, it would have stayed a private matter not connected to work.