See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy DAILY MAIL COMMENT Published: 19:58 BST, 10 July 2026 | Updated: 20:12 BST, 10 July 2026
As Sir Keir Starmer prepares to shuffle out of Downing Street, unloved, unmourned, and almost unnoticed, future historians may wonder how he ever came to be there at all.He had no discernible political beliefs, no true allies, and was elected by just one in five of those eligible to vote. He was an accidental prime minister with a loveless landslide.Shortly after coming to power, his approval ratings were already in the political equivalent of the Mariana Trench and his own party came to treat him with contempt. Even those whose careers he advanced abandoned him as soon as there was a new kid on the block to suck up to.But Sir Keir did have one thing that his successor doesn’t – a mandate from the people of this country. He may have been elected by default after the Tory implosion – but he was elected.He may have bent or broken many of his manifesto promises – but he did have a manifesto, giving the public at least an idea of how he intended to govern. What do we know of Andy Burnham?This is a man who has been on the outer margins of national politics for nearly a decade and didn’t stand for Parliament in any of the last three elections. He has been mayor of a provincial city, but that is a far cry from running the country. Those around him are also terrifyingly lacking in experience.Yet next week the self-styled ‘King of the North’ will sashay uncontested into Number 10 via a cynical Labour stitch-up. It is truly an affront to democracy. This is a man who has been on the outer margins of national politics for nearly a decade and didn’t stand for Parliament in any of the last three electionsHis adoring supporters view Mr Burnham as Labour’s messiah. But he’s more like a dodgy evangelist, offering a cure-all remedy for the nation’s ills if we will just suspend our disbelief and have faith in his goodness.He speaks in bland, often cringeworthy cliches. We need a ‘circuit-breaker’, he says, ‘growth in every postcode’ and ‘hope in every heart’. All very nice, but what does it mean? More importantly, what does it tell us about the measure of the man?Platitudes, a ready wink and a winsome smile are no substitute for policies. ‘Manchesterism’ and the stupendously vacuous ‘I’m for us!’ may sound catchy in Makerfield but such twee parochialism won’t solve our domestic and international problems.Britain is beset by crises. We need a national leader who understands this and has the courage to address them. Could Mr Burnham be that leader? What little evidence we have is not encouraging.We know he is a tax-and-spend socialist, so we can expect more crippling taxes and no attempt to control the UK’s ruinous welfare bill. Depressingly, he also believes in renationalisation, greater union power, and more devolution to the regions.But what are his plans for defence, to reduce our towering national debt, cut crime, fix our flagging high streets, ease the cost of living for hard-pressed families, make work pay? Does he know himself?He is so ill-prepared he hasn’t even chosen a Chancellor. The country is in the hands of rank amateurs.The right thing to do would be to call a general election. This would allow Mr Burnham to develop and refine his policy platform and put it to the public vote. Until he does, he will always be viewed as a pretender. A messiah with no mandate.
