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?

He wasn’t.

The England team was.

Andy Burnham plans to take Britain back to the 1970s with state intervention in the markets, a mass social housing programme and a renewed focus on technical education…

Mr Burnham claimed he would be the most import­ant Brit­ish leader for 40 years and boas­ted he would ‘bring back hope’ to Bri­tain. He insisted he does have a ‘plan’ for the coun­try, but he set out no details of the policies that would deliver his sweep­ing vis­ion.

Do you remember when Labour entered government - the negativity from Starmer and Reeves?

Probably about 12 months.
To my mind, the Local elections were a clear sign the electorate hate the Labour policies, which when you consider they only got 36% of the vote in the 24 GE is not that surprising.

However, the Party decided it wasn't the policies, it was all KS fault, and anyone would be better to lead the party.

We now know KS didn't have a plan, and nor does AB, other than a deluded wish list of objectives.

Andy knows RR has maxed out taxation and borrowing on the promise of significant growth, which didn't materialised.

I expect the wheels to fall off by the autumn.

The local elections were obviously a spur but his team has been planning for Burnham to be PM for over a year. There was then the Gorton by election, in February, which he was denied. The locals were presumably the impetus for Simons to make way in Makerfield so the plan could reach fruition.

No one voted for him to lead the country - he has a massive creditability deficit.

True

More people voted for Burnham than voted for Starmer in 2024. Starmer got 18,000 votes. Burnham got 24,000. More than 300 Labour MPs nominated Burnham to lead them. Facts are so inconvenient.

Nah. It wax Starmer not Burnham who would have gone to the Final.

The country needs a real labour government, it needs a government to address growth, health, education and public service.It needs to be paid for by higher taxes for all. We all need to accept that life will involve paying a lot more tax.

Transport, infrastructure, utilities need sorting out.

This is something Labour traditionally were good at

The question is priorities and as a country we don't pay enough tax, those countries that do are better run. Sweden, Norway, Finland, France, Germany.

British people need to accept stuff isn't free it needs money.

I think opening the gas fields seems a viable route to fund spending but is wholely dependent on there being viable gas fields ...that might not be the case.

Maybe the Falklands waters may produce some...that might infuriate Argentina....but right now that might be a good thing

I do think Labour MPs are pushing for more taxes, it’s been said by their own MP that that’s their focus in every meeting.

They are starting to get external warnings on peak tax from the IMF and OECD so we’ll see how Burnham and chancellor manage that.

He’ll be found out soon enough. The public’s bullshit detector is already twitching strongly after just a couple of Burnham’s speeches.

Yes, although it doesn't work like that with a PM, I have never heard of it working the way Burnham has done it. He spoke out against it when Tory ministers became PM mid-term and he became an MP mid-term in order to be PM. He does have a lot to do to be credible.

I think he will last until the next general election which he will lose - can’t see Kemi becoming PM though.

No, me neither.

I unfortunately think he’ll be in place until the next election, and then we’ll end up with Farage.

I think he’s attempting some sort of rescue mission, which I don’t think can or will be successful.

Don't you think that Farage has lost his momentum and many of his votes are going to Restore?

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Farage isn't even an MP at the moment is he?

Burnham wasn’t an MP until
very recently.

Possibly.

But I don’t think Restore will have the infrastructure by the time we reach election, so tactically - there may be a switch back to Reform when it comes to voting.

I also think that unfortunately there are enough people convinced by Farage, or happy to overlook things, for him to not lose “enough” momentum.

Boris Johnson: “I thought Count Binface had rather a good point when he said that a vote for him would actually preclude the expense of a second by-election.”

Restore currently has 70,000 more members of their party than the Tories have of theirs.

Yes, as the WASPI know only too well.

They don’t currently have MPs (apart from Lowe), and I’m unsure they’d be able to source enough candidates to win enough seats for a GE victory.

Might be proven wrong though.

Either way, I think the next election will swing as far to the right as it can.

That certainly seems to be the mood of the electorate, I’m doubtful either Labour or Conservative can do enough to prevent it.

Labour are not traditionally good at growth.

This chart from the article shows that Conservative governments are consistently better at delivering growth:

Did Keir Starmer improve Britain? Here’s what the data says

www.thetimes.com/article/a1f59988-842b-470e-ba3d-84002d9311da?shareToken=0b2fbb6bd33e95decc44ca44be6d3be5