Andy Burnham was officially named as the new Labour leader this week, but the mood of unity on the surface belies a party still scarred by internal warfare. Channel 4 News spoke to three Labour MPs from different wings of the party, all expressing cautious optimism – yet the background hum of recent insults and recriminations is hard to ignore.
Rachael Maskell, on the left of the party, backed Burnham and wants to see Ed Miliband as Chancellor. Graham Stringer, who served as a minister under Tony Blair and was previously leader of Manchester City Council, also offered support. Marie Tidball, who has known Burnham since 2012 through shared work on disability rights and became an MP two years ago, said she believes he can unite the party.
“Andy Burnham named Labour leader as MPs from different wings voice support amid party tensions.”
But the path to unity may be rocky. At the final Prime Minister’s Questions before stepping down, Keir Starmer received a warm tribute from Kemi Badenoch, who “desisted from attacking” and delivered a “twinkly-eyed tribute”. Starmer replied in kind, saying “it has to be robust – that is the way politics is done”. Not all Labour colleagues agree: there were “vague suggestions” that Badenoch’s recent comment about “400 knives stuck in [Starmer’s] back” might be an incitement to violence, a claim the UnHerd article dismissed as unconvincing.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson – branded a “spiteful class warrior” by Badenoch during the same PMQs – has been making capital out of the insult, even posing with the phrase on a t-shirt. The article noted a “general air of unreality”, pointing out how many Labour MPs themselves used brutal language in the past. Old tweets emerged: David Lammy calling Ann Widdecombe “absolutely poisonous” and a “bigot” in 2019; Jess Phillips urging readers to vote the “little fascist beast” off Strictly in 2010. Lammy later paid homage to Widdecombe after “last week’s horrific events”, but the article questioned whether he ever really meant it.
As Burnham takes the reins, the question is whether he can harness the party’s energy without being tripped up by its history of internal insults. The three MPs who spoke to Channel 4 may represent a fragile truce, but the scars of recent battles are still fresh.