Senior Labour figures have declared the party is united behind Andy Burnham as its next leader, with deputy leader Lucy Powell telling the BBC that “it looks like we’re probably going to have just the one candidate” – a coronation rather than a contest. Housing Secretary Steve Reed agreed, saying the party would “move very swiftly to uniting behind Andy Burnham” without “turning inwards”.
The rush to anoint Burnham comes after Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation earlier this week, triggering a leadership contest timeline that has so far produced scant evidence of support for any other contender. Former defence minister Al Carns has said a speech on Monday, in which Burnham will set out his economic policy, will decide whether he challenges him.
“Andy Burnham is set to become Labour leader unopposed, with senior figures backing a coronation and Al Carns assessing his challenge.”
But Burnham’s path to No 10 is not without its own contradictions. The man being hailed as a “Northern” saviour of the party – a label he has been called “a plastic Northerner” and “a professional Northerner” – claimed more than £16,000 in parliamentary expenses to help buy and renovate a London flat when he was first an MP, according to the Daily Mail.
Inside the Burnham machine, however, the focus is on the next three weeks – a period his team calls “the campaign”. Speaking at the People’s History Museum in Manchester on 29 June, Burnham wrote every word of his speech himself, the weekend before at his home in Lancashire. “The political direction I set is not up for negotiation,” he said, an indication of how he intends to lead. A senior colleague said it was clear Burnham had written the speech: “The ideas, the observations, the final flourish. It was all him.”
His campaign is now operating as if it were a competitive race, with former transport secretary Louise Haigh as chair holding a daily morning call and an “evening wrap” with staff. Jacinda Ardern’s election-winning campaign director, Hayden Munro, has been drafted in to coordinate the coming weeks, bringing expertise from New Zealand politics and, as one insider joked, “a lack of expertise in the petty grievances of UK Labour politics”.
Despite the show of unity, questions over a general election linger. Powell, who called for one when Liz Truss was ousted in 2022, denied hypocrisy, saying “we were in very particular times after Liz Truss crashed the economy”. Reed said this time was different because the Tories had repeatedly changed leader. Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has called for an immediate election, but the Conservatives have not. Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly told the BBC that an election would delay key decisions, particularly on defence spending, adding: “There is a job of work to be done and we should get on with it.”
As Burnham’s team prepares for what they see as a brief window to secure a Labour mandate, the question remains: is the “King of the North” really the unifier the party needs – or merely its best bet?