Andy Burnham has not yet entered No. 10, but the Conservatives and Reform are already preparing for the possibility of an early general election. Resources are being redeployed, attack lines sharpened and campaign plans drawn up for the aftermath of Labour’s coronation. Nigel Farage wants a snap showdown. Kemi Badenoch insists defence must be properly funded before the country is returned to the polls.
The rapid elevation of the MP for Makerfield poses tricky questions for his opponents. Burnham has built a following without a clearly defined ideology or coherent policy programme, leaving strategists in Reform and the Conservative party – like much of Britain – unsure which version of him will walk into No. 10. Yet despite that uncertainty, preparations are being made fast.
Some former Tory MPs applying to stand again will not make the cut as Badenoch tries to break with the past
For the Conservatives, the core argument will be that Labour’s problem was never merely its leader, but its backbenchers and their stubbornly left-wing instincts. ‘We will ram home that nothing’s changed and these are the same failed politicians who’ve been failing for the last two years,’ says an insider. The Tories will also argue that Burnham will be surrounded by familiar left-wing faces such as Angela Rayner and Ed Miliband, whose time in cabinet, they will say, is already a proven failure. Burnham is undoubtedly an upgrade on Keir Starmer when it comes to personality. But the Tories will cast his ‘I wear T-shirts and love football’ shtick as a distraction from the central point: like his predecessor, he enters office without a plan.
