Andy Burnham’s grip on No. 10 is firm but his plans are not

Andy Burnham is now certain to be the UK’s next prime minister. What’s uncertain is almost everything else concerning his plans for government, with their detail still obscure to allies just 10 days out.


The former mayor of Manchester very quickly secured the backing of so many fellow Labour MPs that, while the contest for Keir Starmer’s successor is scheduled to last a week, by day two there was no room for another to join the race. Behind that unanimity is a widespread unease over the prospect of installing a new leader whose ideas remain untested.


Those looking for “answers and explanations” have been “deliberately cut out of the process by those who did not want a contest,” said MP Neil Coyle, who’s in the small minority who didn’t nominate Burnham on the first day of Labour’s one-horse race.

It’s not just backbenchers who complain they’re left out in the cold. The former Manchester mayor has given one big policy speech since winning election to the Commons three weeks ago, in which he pledged to devolve fiscal powers and deliver “the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run.”

Even close allies complain they are unsure what that will look like, according to people familiar with the matter who requested anonymity to speak frankly about their misgivings. A few said they were rebuffed in attempts to reach him one-on-one as he works up policies with a small but steadily expanding group of aides behind closed doors.

A spokesperson for the presumptive prime minister did not immediately return a request for comment.

In a letter pitching his leadership to fellow MPs this week, Burnham promised to lead in a more inclusive manner than Starmer. One person questioned how that was possible when the incoming leader’s decision not to distribute portfolios until the last minute makes shared preparation impossible.

Cabinet members jostling for positions under Burnham remain in the dark about what job they might get. “I know it’s driving a lot of my colleagues completely to distraction,” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy told BBC radio.

The Burnham ally said the situation wasn’t so unusual, pointing to the precedent of routine ministerial changes when cabinet members are fired or reassigned to different portfolios. In those cases, “you’re asked to go to Downing Street. You are given a job, and then you work with the team, the outgoing secretary of state and the incoming ministers, and you make sure that you do a good job,” she said.

Those who can’t get through to Burnham in private look instead to his public statements. But there he has sown much confusion. He wavered before committing to maintaining the current chancellor’s fiscal rules. His team had considered a split of the Treasury, then this week one of his closest advisers, a former advocate of the plan, said it was no longer on the cards.

Pleasing Labour MPs — who under Starmer resisted the welfare cuts Burnham has also vowed to tackle — may mean frustrating bond market investors who view the new government with some trepidation. “We clearly don’t know what Burnham is is going to do, but he knows very well that there are constraints,” said John Stopford, head of multi-asset income at Ninety One.

In the lead up to the contest Burnham had been regularly meeting with small groups of colleagues to discuss his plan for power. But his failure to offer specific details about what his government will prioritize threatens to undermine that promise, party insiders said.

“I hope he does well and brings a team in with a stronger message and communications strategy. But the approach so far does not reassure me,” said Coyle.

“Leaving all the questions until he’s in post risks a more rapid disintegration of unity under the pressures of Number 10,” he said.