Monday 22 June 2026 10:33 am  |  Updated:  Monday 22 June 2026 10:34 am

Andy Burnham: being all things to all men will end up letting everyone down

By: Eliot Wilson

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Andy Burnham has made a series of promises he knows he can’t keep. Either that he does not care, so consumed is he with ambition to be Prime Minister, or that he believes he will somehow find a way to make the circle appear squared and satisfy a broad spectrum of opinion. Indifference or mendacity – what a choice, says Eliot Wilson

Following Andy Burnham’s victory in last week’s Makerfield by-election, the Labour Party finds itself in a peculiar position. Burnham and Sir Keir Starmer are not formally or publicly enemies, yet Burnham long ago stopped making a secret of the fact that he wants Starmer’s job and is actively seeking to supplant him as Prime Minister.

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes, of course, and I predicted at the beginning of the year that Starmer would see out 2026 in Downing Street, but there is a good chance Burnham will oust him. Certainly, the Mayor of Greater Manchester – as Burnham remains until a by-election, probably in July – has been campaigning in earnest, sketching the kind of administration his colleagues and the electorate could expect him to lead.

Much of Burnham’s appeal is simply that he is not Starmer. There is panic in Labour ranks, with one survey suggesting the party could be reduced to 83 seats in the House of Commons at the next election; that would be an existential challenge, its worst performance since........

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