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 agree, in fact, I could almost have written this post!
Burnham is a Cambridge educated career politician who is actually most interested in Andy Burnham, ahead of anything else

His "man of the people" and "king of the north" persona is just that, a persona.

It was not the right time to change leader and have a new PM. Keir Starmer offered him a role in Government and if he really cared about the party & the country he could have taken that and started to effect change while keeping some stability.
Bit this is more about his political ambitions than it is the party or the country.

He will be very unpopular once he starts bringing in inevitable tax rises to pay for his schemes and the Tories will use his lack of mandate against him.
He will probably then lose Labour the next election and we will be in the wilderness again for years.
Starmer wasn't perfect by any means and I think he was naive in the people he trusted around him but he had an official mandate and I think given more time he would have been good for this country against a difficult world back drop.

I hope I am wrong and Burnham is great but I have real doubts about him.

No he didn't, the Labour party did.

So we shouldn't have a democratic discussion about our prime minister just to avoid Reform getting in?

There's no way quicker than turning people off than by shutting down their views and not feeling heard, surely if nothing else we can agree on that. I'm a labour voter but no way am I going to be told I can't express my opinion.

Of course he's a career politician.

I mean, everyone knows this. It's just that some people want better.

I LIKED Starmer sacking people he clearly liked (Rayner) because of their bad judgment - it felt refreshing! I liked that he was so strong on anti-Semitism and purged his party, instead of turning a blind eye like St. Corbyn. I genuinely felt he had integrity, was governing for all - yes even Tory and reform voters, as he should - and it restored my faith a bit.

Now in comes lovely nice Burnham restoring people who should still be sacked, taking selfies with them all. Sickening.

Watch the original BBC version from the 80s

But in all the Conservative madness we had leadership elections and time to adjust. And they were sitting MPs.

I agree with OP. It’s not necessarily that there’s a new leader, it’s the fact that a) he engineered a by-election to become an MP and b) there was no leadership competition. That’s why it’s being called a bloodless coup.

^ this

Not only a career politician, but Starmer wasn't! He has real world experience, but people still think he is less authentic then Burnham! We get the electorate and politicians we deserve I guess.

It does seem strange and I feel he could just as easily be a new Man U football manager .

Unfortunately Kier was not a good communicator. Burnham is much better.

I most definitely am not.

The difference is that Burnham was not even an MP and a sitting MP resigned to allow Burnham to pave his way to number 10. I know it’s our system and legal, but it FEELS wrong.

I would make it that if the leader of the party and PM changes mid term for whatever reason, as a minimum the replacement leader and PM can only be from the pool of MPs that have been in post since the last general election.

Possibly. It's a point of view for sure. I think Labour made a mistake with Starmer in the first place; I was always surprised at what a poor speaker he was and then at his abject performance as prime minister. He seemed to have a real talent for making the wrong choice at every junction and alienating people from all sides of Labour!

All of whom were actually sitting MPs with current and releavent experience not council bosses.

Burnham got some kind of golden ticket to be the boss and I've no idea why the media aren't as outraged about it as many people are.

I assume you felt it was similarly disgraceful during the period of revolving door PMs during the last Conservative government?

Um he’s been in politics for years , held numerous cabinet positions , previously stood for Leader and held the role of Mayor of Manchester. Hardly an alien ! I don’t recall people saying this about Boris ?

You just know he'll be out in 6mths and then will do the reality tv circuit. Strictly 2027.

Starmer will come out of this the better man. I don't like his politics, and some of the things he did (unwittingly) to divide people. However, he showed integrity. Burnham is all about the pizzazz and quick grabs.

Maybe because the media understand the way in which our parliamentary democracy works while many of the public don't?

Cabinet positions years ago. More recently a council boss.

Many did, that’s why the Conservatives got a kicking at the last election. But they all won their positions as leaders as sitting MPs, often Cabinet ministers and with robust leadership elections.

Burnham has faced no scrutiny. It feels like a coup.

That’s fine. Can you say more on why not? Just interested

I'm reserving judgement - I really hope it works out because, with the calibre of our current politicians, a GE will just see us lurch from one party that seemingly doesn't have a clue, to another!
I'd rather let the dust settle and see if AB can bring some optimism and policies which actually matter to the public, back.
I'm liking the idea to cut VAT on fuel (imo essential utilities shouldn't be taxed) and to bring piss taking water companies back under public control.
I'm not at all enamoured of releasing prisoners early - that will go down like a cup of cold sick with the electorate. And he will have to deal effectively with immigration - there is a perception that too much of the public purse is spent on accommodating immigrants, while the British public still can't get nhs dentists, or he seem quickly at A&E or afford housing. He's got to resolve that because that's the crack which will let Reform win a GE. And a GE will have to come at some point - l Labour can only kick the can down the road for so long.

He will also need to stop politicians from all being seen as 'on the take'. Public perception is that they all use office to feather their own nests. The AR failure to pay proper stamp duty (whether cleared or not) isn't a good look. The truth is that the public (rightly or wrongly)no longer trust the 'professional' investigations into politician's finances and conduct and feel they get leeway for things that normal people would be in deep trouble for. So he needs to clean house.

KS was reactive, not proactive. He had no charisma and gave the impression of having no ideas. Nothing really got better under his leadership - workers with less than 2 years employment still basically have no rights, temp contracts still exist for the lowest paid workers, which deny them basic job security, there are still no nhs dentists, we are drowning in identity politics. I don't forgive KS for letting a rich donor pay for his clothes (urgh - not at all fitting in a PM) and for being all weak and pathetic on the whole women can have penises thing!

I don't envy AB - I hope he does well and hasn't bitten off more than he can chew!

Yes, the timeframe is pertinent. I think that's obvious.

So what would you do about ex offenders? Would you be happy if they were unemployable and perpetually on benefits? What about those politicians who engage in nominally legal forms of bad behaviour - is Sunak and his tax "avoidance" more palatable than Haigh and her decades old phone theft?