LONDON – Two months into Andy Burnham’s tenure as Britain’s prime minister, his own party has yet to call for his removal. In today’s Labour Party, that alone counts as progress.
Labour begins its annual conference on Sunday beside the River Mersey in Liverpool, where Burnham will promise to move Britain beyond a decade of political upheaval and economic uncertainty. His rise has made him the United Kingdom’s seventh prime minister since the country voted to leave the European Union in 2016.
The central theme of his keynote address on Tuesday, he says, will be simple: “It’s time for Britain to have hope again.”
“We’ve had a decade since Brexit and it’s been a decade of too much drift, too much division, and we need to draw a line on that,” Burnham said Saturday as he arrived in Liverpool.
The appeal is directed at voters and at a center-left Labour movement that is cautiously optimistic. Members want to believe Burnham’s promise of brighter days, but they are also anxious about the economic fallout from conflict in the Middle East.
Rob Ford, a political science professor at the University of Manchester, said Burnham must persuade “a skeptical electorate” that change is possible “while at the same time doing that within the constraints of a very difficult economic and fiscal situation.”
Put more bluntly, Ford asked: “How do you serve people a bowl of cold porridge and convince them it’s a pepperoni pizza?”
Upbeat Burnham replaces unpopular Starmer
Britain’s major parties hold their annual conferences throughout September and October. The events combine political rallies, social gatherings and policy debates, helping shape the national agenda for the year ahead.
Labour’s conference last year was marked by despair. Members were alarmed by Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s steep fall in popularity, which came little more than a year after Labour’s landslide election victory, as well as by the seemingly relentless growth of the anti-immigration Reform UK party.
At the time, Burnham was still the popular mayor of Greater Manchester. Journalists tracked his movements around Liverpool as speculation mounted that he could challenge Starmer for the party leadership.
Those tensions peaked several months later. A panicked Labour Party pushed Starmer out and installed Burnham as both leader and prime minister in July.
Labour has since enjoyed what supporters are calling a “Burnham bounce.” His upbeat rhetoric has been accompanied by limited measures intended to ease household costs, including a reduction in electricity-bill taxes and a cap on bus fares.
Reform, meanwhile, is under parliamentary and police scrutiny over its finances. The party has also recently secured a remarkable 72 million pounds ($95 million) from two cryptocurrency billionaires.
Burnham has outlined several early priorities, including transferring more authority to local leaders to deliver what he calls “good growth in every post code.” He has also pledged to overhaul Britain’s privatized utilities, with particular focus on the costly, leaky and polluting water system.
Despite Labour’s relative unity behind its new leader, Burnham faces internal battles. One centers on whether to approve additional North Sea oil drilling, a proposal opposed by environmental campaigners but supported by trade unions. He also faces resistance to plans inherited from Starmer that would make it more difficult for immigrants to gain permanent settlement in Britain.
The next general election need not take place until 2029. Still, Labour’s renewed momentum has fueled speculation about an early vote — an option Burnham insists is not on his agenda.
“All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead,” Burnham told broadcaster ITV on Friday.
Next month’s budget promises pain
Yet Burnham’s optimistic tone cannot conceal what lies ahead: Britain is heading toward another period of economic pain.
Burnham must explain to party members and voters how he will deal with economic turbulence from the on-off U.S.-Iran war, which has severely restricted the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury chief John Healey is set to deliver the Burnham government’s first budget on Oct. 28, with rising energy prices tightening a cost-of-living squeeze. Like other countries, Britain also needs to find money to increase defense spending to counter threats from Russia.
That means tax rises or spending cuts – or both – could be on the cards.
One thing that might bring an economic boost is to ease some of the trade barriers erected by Brexit. Burnham has pledged closer ties with the European Union, but it’s unclear how close.
Under Starmer, Labour was elected in 2024 on a promise not to seek to rejoin the bloc or enter its single market for goods, services and employment. Many Labour members would like to break that pledge, including former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said last week that the U.K. and EU should start negotiations “where everything is on the table.”
Burnham has said that’s a discussion for another time. Meanwhile, progress toward closer ties has been slow.
An EU-U.K. reset summit initially penciled in for July has slipped to November at the earliest because the two sides are wrangling over the bloc’s “made in Europe” rules, which the U.K. says will hurt British producers.
Ford said that unlike Starmer, who quickly squandered the public’s goodwill, Burnham has held onto his reputation “as an optimist and an effective communicator.” But he said Burnham’s “really stern test” is yet to come.
“The bills are still going to land on the doormat,” Ford said. “He’s going to have to be the prime minister who can sell the average voter on, ‘Yes, that is indeed a bowl of cold porridge in front of you, but it will get better.’”
