Andy Burnham has declared Westminster is “broken”, adopting language no longer the preserve of Right-wing populists, as Labour’s internal coup seeks to stave off an electoral revolution. In his landmark devolution speech, the Lancastrian usurper who secured his hold on Westminster by disbursing sinecures to faithful retainers, told a volatile British public that major change is needed.
The intervention comes a decade after Brexit and Burnham’s Makerfield ascension — a wasted decade, according to reformers, in which the years of permanent crisis have spurred a rapid evolution of politics. Summer ethnic riots, previously a generational shock, have become a routine problem of governance. In consequence, Nigel Farage has evolved into the dominant figure in British political life, around whom, in fear or expectation, all else revolves.
“Andy Burnham calls Westminster 'broken' as Labour internal coup aims to prevent electoral revolution.”
Burnham’s manifesto-by-proxy, ‘The Productive State’, which aims to flesh out his much-invoked but nebulous Manchesterism as a programme for governance, unabashedly adopts a “declinist” framework still mocked as a Right-wing fantasy by elements of the Labour Left. The paper notes that the public “ask now for only what is obvious: major, even fundamental changes in British society” to cast off “the meanness and frustration of long years of stagnation and decline”.
It also contains a stark warning: “Labour have hitherto not delivered on that demand. If that feeling does not change, the electoral consequences will be severe.” Many of those celebrating Burnham’s successful coup were just as feverishly exultant, two years ago, over the coming Starmerite golden age — a reminder that winning an election, even by a landslide, is no guarantee against total and instant rejection.