This may be barely concealed trauma from my time as a Scottish civil servant but, when I look at Andy Burnham, I see Nicola Sturgeon.
The cultivated public image of Labour’s miracle man in the north is a powerful one. He pulls off the ‘one of us’, ‘man of the people’, ‘our lad done good’ shtick better than most politicians – in spite of his Blairite origins. Sturgeon wielded a similar power. It always surprised me how popular she was with the mums. As long as she said ‘sorry’ occasionally, most people – even those who did not vote for her – were sympathetic and felt she was often unfairly criticised during her nine-year tenure as first minister. Burnham seems to possess some of that voter appeal and, in turn, that political immunity too.
This ‘good guy’ vibe helps explain why the mayor of Greater Manchester feels he can get away with abdicating from office and running for parliament. Just two years ago, he had promised voters in his city that he was ‘committed to my third term, absolutely’. Then, yesterday, he announced he wanted to stand in the Makerfield by-election to ‘regain the trust of people’ in the constituency. Contradictory? Not, apparently, if you’re a true ‘man of the people’ listening to your ailing nation.
