After six failed attempts in the past decade, is Andy Burnham the prime minister finally to get Britain back on its feet? The choice of the latest wannabe savior—or rather the anointing—of someone who until a few days ago wasn’t even in the House of Commons seems at first glance a curious one.
The stakes are extraordinarily high. As in France, Germany, and elsewhere in the Western world, the next few years are seen as the last chance to preserve liberal democracy from the onslaught of far-right populism. The cause was not enhanced under the two-year failed tenure of Keir Starmer, who squandered a huge parliamentary majority with his dour incrementalism, while the populist-nationalist Reform U.K. party and the Greens became major forces.
Friends and foes are projecting onto Burnham their hopes and fears. Some see his criticisms of Starmer as evidence that he will lead a leftist administration, spooking the already-skeptical bond markets with a spending spree that will further imperil the United Kingdom’s heavily indebted finances. His supporters—and there are many—see him as the breath of fresh air that the Labour Party and Britain have been waiting for.
Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) applauds Burnham at a Labour Party conference in Brighton, England.
