New PM is a massive step up on Keir Starmer, but is making a hash of one of his first major tests, writes Harvey Jones
Andy Burnham is discovering that in power, you can’t have it both ways (Image: Getty)
I don’t want to be snarky about Andy Burnham. He seems a modest, pleasant chap. And that’s good. The PM has charm, self-deprecation and the wit to deflect political attacks. He’s a massive step up on Keir Starmer, and has already done the country a great service by helping torpedo Green Party chancer Zack Polanski.
I’d have a beer with Burnham ahead of almost anybody else in Parliament. There’s just one problem. I just don’t think he’ll make a very good PM. He might even be a terrible one. And we saw why on Monday, when he made a total hash of his first big Brexit test.
Charm and a desire to please are useful qualities, until you have to make tough decisions that will annoy half the country, and there’s no middle way. So far, making all the right noises has served Burnham well. Labour MPs swung behind him as he promised more public spending, more nationalisation, more social security and more EU. All that sounds delightful in his Left-wing echo chamber. In power, they’re a total liability.
More spending? We don’t have the money. Nationalisation? It’ll do more harm than good, and we don’t have the money anyway. More social security? What we really need is jobs and growth and, oh, there’s no money. More EU? Is he absolutely flipping crazy?
Reopening Brexit is a recipe for trouble, as Monday showed. The Left lost its mind over Europe years ago. In the 1970s, the EU was seen by much of the Left as a capitalist club to be avoided. Now it’s presented as the answer to every problem we face. Newsflash: it isn’t. Today, it’s got massive problems of its own. Just look at Germany and France.
Burnham just embarrassed himself by claiming that Russia interfered in the Brexit referendum, saying he was given a “clear answer” that it did. We’re still waiting for the evidence to back that up. He’s also insulted Brexit voters, implying they’re dupes. Tory leader Kemi Badenoch nailed him, saying: “We all remember that in 2018, the head of MI5 said that there was no evidence that Russia had influenced the EU referendum result.”
Burnham handed Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage an opportunity to nail him to the wall, and they took it. Johnson said the PM’s “lies have come back to him” while Farage said: “The Prime Minister is a liar.”
Burnham did another Brexit flip-flop by telling MPs that “no one in the House today is proposing a referendum”, before saying the country had to “look at the options”. It’s embarrassing.
The PM is blatantly reopening a debate he promised Makerfield voters would remain closed. During the by-election, Burnham said Britain would be stuck in a “permanent rut” if it kept re-running Brexit arguments. He was right. Now he’s fallen into that rut, and could be permanently stuck there.
He said one thing to Makerfield voters when it suited him, but is now sending different messages to the Green Party and Lib Dem voters he’s trying to woo ahead of a possible snap election.
In doing so, a man who promised a “new path which brings the country back together” has reopened the most divisive political debate of the millennium. For a nice guy, he’s really stirring things up. And this is only the start of the chaos.