It has been bliss for Andy Burnham in the aftermath of his ruthless rout of a sitting Prime Minister. The man who recently diagnosed a “chasm” in trust between the Labour Party and voters will now get to set a culture and priorities of his own.
It is an overhaul that will determine whether the “Burnham boost” is a mere in-house pipe dream or a correction of the many failures of the Starmer years. And it means collateral damage, as the Government’s power rankings shift.
Burnham has ably ridden different horses, sweeping up soft-left support and applause from northern MPs who felt that Starmer could not command faith in the culturally conservative Red Wall to see off the march of Reform. Since his Makerfield win, Burnham has also shown he is open to a right-leaning flank in key advisor appointments and keeping the most forthright proponent of stringent immigration, Shabana Mahmood, either in post at the Home Office or reportedly, even a flirtation with an appointment to Chancellor.
So much briefing is around on what Burnham wants and what his tradeoffs will look like that a good amount of it must turn out to be wrong.
But some rumours are stronger than others and the latest is that the real Miliband to watch might be David, not Energy Secretary and darling of the left, Ed. David has long been the man with eyes on a restoration to the Foreign Office, and I have been told “it’s serious” by a source close to Burnham and Miliband. They report the wannabe PM is impressed by the intellectual sweep of Miliband’s geo-politics – and his ability to understand the cross-currents of international crises and impact on the UK more adroitly than competitors.
