The United Kingdom is set to see its seventh prime minister in the past ten years, and it appears that man will be Andy Burnham, a veteran Labour Party Westminster insider who has sought to cast himself as a “socialist” working-class hero.
Andy Burnham will return to the House of Commons on Monday after having spent the past ten years outside of the London political bubble as Mayor of Greater Manchester. Previously serving as the MP for Leigh from 2001 until 2017, his return was orchestrated over the past year as it became clear that outgoing Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was unable to inspire public confidence.
Starmer successfully blocked Burnham’s first bid to return to parliament — a necessity for him to launch a leadership challenge — at the Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-election in January. However, the PM was unwilling or perhaps unable to block his candidacy a second time after anti-Breitbart censorship activist Josh Simons vacated his seat in Makerfield following last month’s local elections that saw Labour lose major ground in once safe territory to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party.
Last week may have sealed Starmer’s fate, as Burnham, bolstered by his local popularity after a decade serving as Mayor in conjunction with voters strategically backing his campaign with the ultimate aim of ousting Starmer, won a convincing victory over Reform. This apparently convinced the Labour top brass that Burnham was the party’s best shot at retaining power and preventing Farage from taking over Downing Street.
While there was initially talk of other potential challengers in a leadership contest over the summer, it appears that Burnham is set for a coronation rather than a battle, with top rival Health Minister Wes Streeting quickly announcing his support for Burnham after Starmer’s resignation. The liberal legacy media was also quick to fawn over the supposed political saviour, with the BBC even chartering a helicopter simply to cover his train journey from Manchester to London with bated breath.