See more Daily Mail on Google - save us as a Preferred SourceBy DAVID WILCOCK, DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR and CHRISTIAN CALGIE, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT-AT-LARGE Published: 14:44 BST, 30 August 2026 | Updated: 17:18 BST, 30 August 2026
Andy Burnham is facing renewed pressure to call a general election after a Labour grandee said he should go to the country before next summer.Former home secretary Alan Johnson said the new Prime Minister should prove his new policies are popular and a break from the Starmer era by holding a vote in 2027. While Mr Burnham ran for the Labour leadership on a platform of major policy change, his Chancellor John Healey last week said that his new administration was 'continuity of a Labour government' with a different leader.Speaking to Times Radio, Mr Johnson, who was a Cabinet minister under Tony Blair and alongside Mr Burnham under Gordon Brown, said: 'He (Burnham) can't really, I don't think, see out the whole Starmer term... until 2029.'He's got to think about going to the country before that and getting his own mandate.'He added that it didn't need to happen immediately, admitting Labour MPs listening 'will be screaming at me that the last thing they want is a general election'.But he said it was vital to 'restore trust in politics' and cited Mr Brown's failure to call an election after replacing Sir Tony as PM in 2007. Alan Johnson, a former home secretary, said the new Prime Minister should prove his new policies are popular and a break from the Starmer era by holding a vote in 2027 Speaking to Times Radio Mr Johnson (C), who was a Cabinet minister alongside Mr Burnham (R) under Gordon Brown, said: 'He (Burnham) can't really, I don't think, see out the whole Starmer term... until 2029' (picture from 2007)It came after Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Cabinet Secretary demanding formal pre-election talks with civil servants.Mrs Badenoch has said she wants mandarins to be fully across Tory plans for radical reforms should Mr Burnham's gamble backfire.In a letter to Dame Antonia Romeo, seen by The Mail on Sunday, Mrs Badenoch said she believes Mr Burnham will call an election sooner rather than later.She says this is because Labour's current manifesto 'does not allow him to put up the taxes he wishes to pursue his agenda'.Access talks traditionally take place about 12 to 16 months prior to the end of a parliament, and are used to help the civil service and opposition parties prepare for a possible change of government.Speaking in Ukraine this week, Mr Burnham insisted that an early election is not 'what people are looking for right now'.Asked by ITV News why he wouldn't capitalise on Labour's recent rise in the polls to overtake Reform UK, Mr Burnham said: 'I will tell you why not – because I am focused on the needs of the country and not party-political interest.'Despite his denial, Reform UK have also said that their conference this weekend will be used to put their party on a snap election footing.
