There is a running joke in Westminster about the shape-shifting politics of Labour’s Andy Burnham, the top contender to unseat Keir Starmer as UK prime minister.
It goes like this: a Blairite, a Corbynite and a Starmerite walk into a bar. The bartender says: “Hello Andy.”
In his 25-year career as an elected politician, the Greater Manchester mayor Burnham’s political leanings have stretched the full width of Labour’s spectrum. He has inhabited every spot from right-adjacent reformer to left-wing man of the people.
With the seemingly hapless and doomed Starmer rocking on his heels after an internal Labour rebellion, Burnham now plans to metamorphasise once again.
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Can the so-called “King of the North” extend his dominion south to Westminster, and become the prime minister who finally gets a grip on post-Brexit broken Britain?
Who exactly is this Scouse-born mayor of Manchester, what does he believe in and what makes him tick?
Burnham (56) may be the current doyen of the UK Labour Party, whose skittish MPs are increasingly hopeful that he returns to parliament to help save their seats from Reform UK and the Greens. But financial markets are run by different, less sentimental beasts.
Ever since Burnham’s announcement on Thursday that he had a path to return to Westminster to challenge Starmer, the pound sterling has slipped against the dollar. This is because last year the currently left-focused Burnham complained last year that debt-laden Britain should not feel “in hock to the bond markets”.
It sounded quaint and naive, a reckless suggestion that Britain could borrow and spend ever more, and a rare misstep from the normally sure-footed Burnham. Every top politician knows not to spook the bond markets, especially when you owe so much.
Yet Burnham, who as Manchester mayor has claimed to be a proponent of “business friendly socialism”, could yet morph once again to calm those fears.
Eagle-eyed observers of this week’s dramatic events may have noticed that Josh Simons, the Makerfield (near Wigan) MP who on Thursday said he is stepping aside to let Burnham run, is actually a protege of the UK’s home secretary Shabana Mahmood.
She is a disciplined right-leaning “Blue Labour” politician who is far from a tax and spend merchant. Could Burnham as prime minister be lining up someone like Mahmood as his chancellor to calm financial markets? Did she help to convince Simons to give way?
It is the sort of ruthless, pragmatic move that Burnham might make. His “business-friendly socialism” – nationalising the buses while spurring investment – also seems to have worked in Manchester, one of the few, economically vibrant hotspots in Britain.
Yet Burnham’s campaign to rally support among Westminster MPs is also being led by a true doyenne of Labour’s soft-left, the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh, one of the most popular MPs in her party who also fell out with the current regime.
Burnham is also known to have close links to influential former MP Michael Dugher, a working class-lad-made-good from Doncaster, who has since cultivated deep connections in British business. There is breadth to Burnham’s politics, with links to many Labour factions.
Starmer has already tried to be all things to all people, but ended up as near-nothing to anybody. The more charismatic, shrewder Burnham may actually have the nous and range to pull off the political chameleon act that Britain needs to fix its problems.
[ Andy Burnham makes his move as Keir Starmer’s troubles mountOpens in new window ]
The Irish Times first met Burnham in Manchester shortly before Labour’s 2024 election landslide. He was warm, calm, optimistic, brimming with energy. He said he wants a “rewiring of the British state”.
At that time, he supported more devolution for England’s regions. If he is prime minister, it will be interesting to see if Burnham still supports power flowing the other way.
He was born in Liverpool and is a lifelong Everton supporter. He held a season ticket for the old Gladys End in Goodison, and has presumably migrated over to the new stadium.
He told a funny story about how, as Manchester mayor, his Scouse roots led to an identity crisis, keenly felt at a match between Man City and Everton.
The Manchester club’s fans spotted him and started chanting “you Scouse bastard”. So he moved quickly towards his fellow Everton fans, who then chanted at him “you Manc bastard”.
Burnham was first elected an MP under Tony Blair in 2001 but came into his own under Gordon Brown, who gave him several cabinet posts. He twice ran for the Labour Party leadership, but lost to Ed Miliband in 2010 and Jeremy Corbyn in 2015. In 2017, he left to Westminster to become Greater Manchester mayor.
When we met him, he wore a wristband given to him by the mayor of the Ukrainian city of Lviv. His geopolitics are generally moderate, internationalist in their outlook.
He is knowledgeable about Ireland. Burnham was an energetic campaigner for the families of the Hillsborough tragedy victims in their fight for justice against the British state. He appeared to compare their plight to the fight for justice of the families of the victims of Bloody Sunday: “Anyone with an Irish background will know that places in Ireland have been treated in exactly the same way [as Liverpool and Hillsborough] in history.”
Burnham leans heavily into his northern persona. He told The Irish Times of his pride in the north, how its denizens feel “patronised” by Londoners and the south. He spoke of how, while being patronised, northerners’ chippy identity was key: “Even though we were done down in one way, we were shoulders up in another way.”
Burnham once co-wrote a political book called Head North. The sequel, as he ponders toppling Starmer, must surely be Head South.
