Andy Burnham was racing down to London on a delayed Avanti West Coast charger to assume the role of de facto prime minister – and the phone‑ins were already erupting. “I think we are looking at the end of democracy,” Judy in Bracknell told BBC 5Live just before Keir Starmer went to the Downing Street lectern.
By mid‑July, as now seems almost inevitable, the former Greater Manchester mayor will be our new prime minister, handed the keys to No 10 without anything so messy as a contest, let alone a general election. With Wes Streeting backing the self‑styled King of the North rather than challenging for the Labour leadership, a “coronation” looked inevitable.
“Andy Burnham faces coronation as PM without election; 97% of Express readers demand a vote.”
The public, however, is furious. Social media was awash with horror at the prospect of yet another unelected PM, and a tweet from Angela Rayner in October 2022 – “The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word… Nobody voted for this… It’s time for a fresh start with Labour” – was widely shared. Polls on the Express and Sun websites asked: “Should there be an election?” The view of readers was not complicated: 97 per cent on the Express and 92.7 per cent on the Sun backed yes. Though self‑selecting, the numbers capture a mood.
Joe Twyman at Deltapoll crunched the numbers in a mid‑May poll when Burnham fever was overwhelming. He found that 63 per cent of Brits thought Burnham should go to the country in a general election if he became prime minister – including 56 per cent of Labour voters. “I would imagine that public opinion would be broadly the same on those occasions whenever a similar situation has occurred in the recent past,” he said.
Which is awkward, because the British system of parliamentary democracy resolutely does not give them one. The prime minister is appointed by the monarch on the basis of who can command a majority in parliament, not on whether anyone actually likes them.
Meanwhile, speculation swirls about who will sit at Burnham’s top table. Ed Miliband, the energy secretary and Labour heavyweight, is seen as a candidate for chancellor, and Miliband allies are touting the idea. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary with hardline immigration policies, might be kept on to temper Burnham’s more left‑leaning policies. Wes Streeting, who resigned as health secretary in protest against Starmer just six weeks ago, is among others tipped for chancellor, or could be sent to the Foreign Office if Burnham wants to simultaneously reward and sideline a rival.
Louise Haigh, the first cabinet casualty of the Starmer era, expects to return. She resigned as transport secretary in November 2024 after it emerged she had been convicted of fraud over a missing work phone – but in May, HMRC cleared her of any deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness. As one of Burnham’s main organisers, she is almost certain to be back.
But for now, the question is not who gets which job, but whether the public will ever get a say. As Judy in Bracknell put it: “I think we are looking at the end of democracy.”