Andy Burnham appears to have the quality Napoleon most admired in his generals: luck. The man destined to become Britain’s seventh prime minister in 10 years owes his remarkable ascent from his previous job as mayor of Manchester to the verge of Downing Street to the desperate search by a panic-stricken Labour Party for a leader who can beat Nigel Farage and save the country from a lurch to right-wing populism at the next election.
Yet it is Burnham’s good fortune that he will be taking over just as the Reform Party leader and long-term Brexit campaigner’s political career appears to be imploding. Farage is under intense pressure having failed to disclose substantial donations from an offshore crypto investor and a convicted criminal. The result is that while Burnham this week formally entered a Labour leadership election in which he is not expected to face any challengers, Farage was trying to deflect attention from his financial affairs by resigning his parliamentary seat and fighting a by-election in which his only opponent may be a comedy candidate called Count Binface.
Nonetheless, the joke could soon be on Burnham if, as seems likely, he enters Downing Street on July 20th with no clear-cut plan for what to do when he gets there. He brings to the job some political skills his predecessor Keir Starmer almost entirely lacked. He is a good communicator who knows how to tell a story and make an argument. He has surrounded himself with a respected team of advisers on economics and foreign affairs. He also has some experience of executive office, even if his last stint in government was 16 years ago under Gordon Brown.
