Andy Burnham is one step closer No 10. His win in the Makerfield by-election, beating Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon by more than 9000 votes, gives him the platform to challenge Prime Minister Keir Starmer for the top job. It’s what many Labour MPs are hoping for – and a leadership challenge could come in the coming days. But should he win the Labour leadership, there is a question Burnham will have to answer quickly: can he actually fix Britain? Our chief political commentator Kitty Donaldson, Labour’s former executive director of policy Andrew Fisher, and assistant editor of The Spectator magazine Isabel Hardman give their verdicts.
Kitty Donaldson: Time is not on his side
Andy Burnham certainly has a vision for the type of Britain he wants to see. But like any politician, he has two inescapable pressures: money and time.
He says neoliberalism has failed. By that he means the market is too involved in people’s day-to-day lives. Electricity, water, fuel, transport and housing are all too expensive because they are in the hands of private investors. Take them back into public ownership and the cost will go down. What’s more, the bill to the taxpayer falls too as less is spent on, for instance, housing benefit. And some economists argue it will also bring inflation down.
