How long do you give Andy Burnham as PM?

[AndyBurnham2L]

Build ‘em up.
Knock ‘em down.

Short honeymoon and then the grumbling will start. It will all be over for him by Christmas.

So, who’s next?

Birmingham is the nation’s official second city. I’m sure Birmingham is wondering why it’s not getting the investment that Manchester is suddenly getting.

And as someone from another country in the UK, I'm wondering why there's so much investment in 2 parts of England or why he's not rushing to work in cities outside of that part of the UK. I haven't heard much about how he plans to increase investment in Scotland, Wales or N Ireland beyond some broad talking about how he wants to work closely with the devolved regions blah blah. Why couldn't

Starmer was doing great - it caused a lot of merriment that GB News had to apologise for announcing the success over the small boats:

The Home and Security Editor for GB News, has been a staunch critic of Starmer and his handling of the small boats situation. However, he told viewers over the weekend that he ‘accepts his policies are having an effect’. Quite simply, the numbers don’t lie.

“I am sure this pretty controversial. But part of me would accept that some of this ‘smash the gangs’ policy is having an effect. It is absolutely true that there are more police on the coastline of France. The conditions are flat and calm, and we’d usually get a thousand in a single day.” (12/07/2026)

He’s acting like he’s got a promotion to Mayor of the UK.
Fiddling around with bus fares while we have serious economic and defence issues that need to be addressed urgently. I fear for our futures. At least Boris knew he was a clown, it already feels like Burnham is drowning in his own arrogance. The cheeky Manchester chappie stuff isn’t what we need and it doesn’t wash with me.

The reality is that he hates London. He sees it as the traditional seat of power where he’s always felt like an outsider. He has a rejection complex which has resulted in his desperate need to be all things to all people. He craves acceptance. It probably arose from being initially rejected by Cambridge and then latterly by being twice rejected for the leadership if the Labour Party. He has a massive chip on his shoulder. He’s obsessed with Manchester and other regions of the UK are a complete after thought. It’s literally like his aides have to keep reminding him that they exist. He is a small parochial politician with the mindset of a local mayor and he is hopelessly out of his depth as leader of the UK. Let’s just wrap up this experiment as quickly as possible.

He’s just really out of his depth. At least Starmer was leader of the opposition and had an inkling , but burnham is really like the 16 year old apprentice taking over, ghe man has absolutely no concept of what he’s taken on.

the country has huge fiscal issues, so far he’s promised to end rough sleeping, a promise he made in Manchester and failed to deliver on so should know better, capped bus fares and taken vat off electricity, without working out how to pay for it.

he’s now busy setting up a office in Manchester and spending up on that, disrupting all the staff who will have to move, spending millions of tax payer money due to the now double security thay will be required.

im not sure its his fault. The Labour members wanted him. Just as they were desperate. And it was that or Wes streeting. His ambition got the better of him, he’s went for the top job and the Labour members should have thought this man has absolutely no experience of skill set and is not capable.

parochial is Exactly the right word for him, we really don’t need a divisive small minded bloke proud of his territory to muck about with our country. What a joke. Is there anyone if any stature in Labour though?! Is he really the best they could come up with, or just the pushiest?

“The Labour members wanted him”

I agree with your post Fiendishandfiery but just want to point out that it was Labour MPs who were delusional and spineless enough to want Starmer out and Burnham in … it wasn’t the grass roots Labour members.

There are approx 250,000 grass roots members and we had NO say in the matter. Our voice was silenced because no-one had the guts to stand against Burnham.

I will never forgive (or trust) this current PLP for their actions!

Rather than all the extra money needed for duplicate offices, staff, security for Burnham - he should do something that would address the current huge problem about prison overcrowding.

Burnham should put all of his efforts and resources into building a new, safer, and larger Strangeways.

The Labour members didn’t want him, at least not all of us. We voted against having him twice. This time we were denied any say in the matter.

so like this sort of thing?
Prison Statement

He was the pushiest. He’s rather like Boris in that he’s been determined to be PM for decades and he’d stop at nothing to achieve his ambition. This is despite obviously being completely unsuitable for the role. In the end it’s almost like you have to just let them have their turn so that they can then sod off and let decent people take over.

It is fascinating to see the anti-Burnham script evolving in real time across SM. It is gossamer-thin at the moment as there is no serious dirt to be found so far.

Yes, definitely. As I outlined earlier the Starmer government has worked hard to get the prison overcrowding on track. Because Burnham has now paused the releases - other measures are pressing.

He will fail, as all leaders and parties fail; because he will fail to instigate any meaningful change.

• no economic growth
• no social care reform
• no change to the triple lock, long term state pension viability
• no change to the public sector pension liability
• no reduction welfare amount, or number of welfare claimants
• no reduction in illegal migration

the list goes on and on.

Love him or loathe him, when Blair came to power in ‘97 there was an absolute blitz of transformative policies in the first 100 days. That’s because he’d developed a detailed plan in opposition and was ready to go from day one. Starmer failed in that regard and so will Andy Burnham. Burnham has been scheming and plotting for decades to get into power, his big moment has come and all he’s got are bus fares and tinkering with energy bills. It’s laughable. The priorities should be growth, then growth, followed by growth and finally growth. Unfortunately that’s just not in the Labour lexicon.

Growth of the welfare state?

I am old enough to remember a furore on MN when Starmer upped the bus fare cap. Now that is being reversed, some of the same posters are critical of it.

So what do you propose, honestly what government has the answers. We are powerless with respect to the damage being inflicted on us by Russia and America.

We need to spend money to keep the NHS functioning and clear the waiting lists left by the Tories.

Burnham has taken VAT off fuel in a small attempt to reduce the impact of rising prices. But he's limited to what he can do. Tr

I think a lot of you are living in the clouds, we can't reduce tax anymore,

So is that it? He launched a coup against a properly elected leader and all’s got is tinkering with bus fares. What a disappointment. He’s all hat and no rabbit.

And while I didn't particularly feel Starmer had much to offer I also didn't want him to quit either. I just want some stability and some much needed investment into public services. The Torys would be worse and we know that because the last 12 years have been disastrous for the UK. Boris and his bus and Brexit, the pathetic handling of the pandemic where thousands died because of an idiot in charge, the NHS with record waiting lists, collapse of dental services across the county, record immigration from places like Africa, 7% hit on GDP because of Brexit. Railways and water companies collapsing.

So my advice is give Labour a chance otherwise you'll just end up with another 10 years of woeful growth and poverty.

He’s been PM for less than a week.

He is the ex mayor of Manchester, he is not a PM. He has no idea what he is doing!!

So what qualifications do you need to be PM, is Farage fit to be PM. At least Burnham has been in politics long enough to know how things work.

Is Trump a good president, most of America now think not

To be fair to Trump (not words I thought I would ever type), he was elected - Burnham hasn't been.