Andy “the King of the North” Burnham is the Mayor of Greater Manchester, who, according to the Financial Times, is reported to be a potential leadership challenger to Sir Starmer for the Labour Leadership post, and by extension, the Prime Ministerial position. This is due to the unpopularity of this Labour Government who has been seen as pandering to the right, resulting in the biggest popularity drop for a one year government in 40 years, as reported by the Guardian. There are ambitions brewing 200 miles North where a prominent Labour member, Andy “the King of the North” Burnham has been touted to be a potential challenger to implement a more leftwing Labour Government, as traditional Labour Governments have been. Will he be a better Labour Leader, and can he turn the ship around?
Ideology and Political Career of Andy Burnham
Andy Burnham has been ideologically called “soft left” by the New Statesman and LabourList. The term “soft left” in British politics is not well defined but politics.co.uk describes that ideology as being opposed to the politics of New Labour from former Prime Minister Tony Blair but they've also avoided the politics of the modern left espoused by figures like Jeremy Corbyn. He, however, identifies as a socialist and a social democrat according to an interview by Renewal, a social democratic political magazine.
As the Member of the now-abolished constituency of Leigh for 16 years between the 2001 election to the 2017 election, Mr. Burnham has been very prolific in the House of Commons. First placed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Home Affairs under the Home Office by Prime Minister Blair in 2005, he was quickly promoted to being the Minister of State for Health by 2007 until Blair resigned. When the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown moved from Number 11 to Number 10 Downing Street after being named Prime Minister, he promoted Mr. Burnham to Chief Secretary of the Treasury before being put as Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and then finally as Secretary of State for Health before the 2010 election which kicked Labour into the political wilderness for 14 years until Sir Keir Starmer won a landslide election victory in 2024. [All relevant information can be found on the UK Parliament's Website]
However, he was a prominent member of the Corbyn and Miliband shadow cabinets, serving under both of them in various positions until he resigned from being a member of parliament to run for, and win the first three mayoralty elections [2017, 2021 and 2024] of Greater Manchester to which he is an incumbent as of the time of writing this article. His current term as Mayor of Greater Manchester ends in 2028.
Mainstream Labour and Proxy War against Starmer
After the Starmer government reshuffle, Mainstream Labour was launched whereby they claim that they are the “home of Labour's radical realists” and that they are serious about “winning a democratic socialist future” as per their website. Steered by Compass and Open Labour - political advocacy groups of the centre-left, they advocate reversing what is a clear drift to the right, in order to defeat the far right Reform UK who is leading in the most recent Politico poll - and they are supported by the King of the North, who is in fact the first of several listed signatories in their signatories list.
Although Mr. Burnham is not an MP and therefore cannot stand in the deputy leadership election - he has endorsed Louise Haigh, who was unsuccessful, for Deputy Leader after Deputy Leader Angela Rayner resigned following a tax scandal whereby she underpaid tax on her flat. Currently, the battle for the Labour Party's deputy leadership is still ongoing, with some Labour MPs depicting the race as a proxy war between Andy Burnham and Kier Starmer. The current candidates are the current Secretary of State for Education and Women and Equalities, Bridget Phillipson and the former leader of the House of Commons, Lucy Powell, who was recently sacked by Starmer. Phillipson represents the social conservative and Number 10s choice for the role, while Powell represents the soft left, and the majority of Labour members, who is endorsed by Mr. Burnham. If Phillipson were to lose this election, the Prime Minister will be absolutely be feeling the first of many punches as he takes one political loss after another. According to journalist Robert Peston, "One MP said that the PM is “petrified that Andy will return and be the natural candidate to succeed an ousted Starmer”.
The political situation for the United Kingdom is very bleak, as the Politico Poll cited earlier, Reform UK is polling at 31% and Labour is at a distant 20%, and there are a couple of reasons why. Unite the Union, one of the largest labour unions in the country said at the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that Labour has one year to turn the government around into fighting for them or face the end of Unite's bankrolling - which gives Labour a whopping £1.4 million a year to be affiliated with the party - as Sky News reported. Additionally, he is deeply unpopular for his neoliberal stance on a deeply unpopular Tory policy for capping welfare benefits for families with more than two children, known as the two-child benefit limit saying that he will scrap the cap when “fiscal conditions allow”. However, mounting pressure inside the Parliamentary Labour Party has forced him to either go back on his word or to defend the two-child benefit limit, both of which would be a disaster for him. This Labour Government has not been the Government of the people or of the working class (as all Labour MPs need to be a part of a Labour Union, unless otherwise exempted) - and many people feel let down and angry.
Writer's Thoughts
As part of the left, I back Powell and Burnham. As a Member of Parliament and as Greater Manchester Mayor, he has clearly shown he is willing to push Labour back to its social democratic/democratic socialist roots. He has shown great resilience during the COVID pandemic, whereby he secured more money for the Greater Manchester area, leading the media to nickname him “the King of the North” - even though he got less money than what he wanted (£65 million v £90 million). He also has been of the soft left, and relatively free of scandals - leading many in the party and out of it - myself included, to praise his efforts and hope he'll be the next Labour leader as of the time of writing. A strong and stable leadership in the national interest for the United Kingdom will lead to a stronger and more secure world for all - and that starts by replacing the narrative of “It's so Keirover” to “All Hail the King of the North!”
Timothy (timothytanyeantim@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
