The Unbearable Lightness of Being Andy Burnham

As is known, our new Prime Minister has a degree in English Literature from Cambridge University, Interesting therefore to consider whether there are remnants of Burnham’s studies in his approach to running our country.

As Burnham pours out a stream of TikTok videos – at the last count 207 in the last 12 months – there are queries regarding his motivation and his perceived audience. The most recent one featured an alarm clock but others have included bar snacks, buses and running. The overall message has apparently been one of bringing back hope for children and families. This message was reiterated by Chancellor John Healey when in a speech made on September 7th he proclaimed: “Good growth in every postcode. Hope in every heart.” Healey resolutely declined to respond to questions from the press regarding future tax rises.  Perhaps an honest answer would have been at odds with putting hope in anybody’s heart. Equally, Burnham continues to avoid delineating exactly why or how we should feel positive about anything in the economic or social arena.

In his social media output Burnham has clearly been intent on embellishing his image as an ordinary bloke who likes a pint and a bus and a Greggs and strumming a guitar. The fact that he’s a 56 year-old who’s togged out in designer leisure wear and worth £ 2million is I guess beside the point. On the other hand, young people are pretty good at sussing out manufactured authenticity, so the outcome of his penchant for TikTokism may be hard to gauge. As to families, maybe they have other things on their minds.

Optics aside, this ‘I’m one of you’ image is somewhat at odds with Burnham’s trajectory through the world of politics. As with half of his Government, he acquired an Oxbridge degree and within a year or so was working for the late Tessa Jowell and within 10 years of graduation was fully launched as a New Labour Blairite – becoming Labour MP for Leigh (which is now in Greater Manchester) in 2001, an office he held for 16 years.  During that time he was a junior minister in the Home Office, a minister in the Department of Health, chief secretary to the Treasury, culture secretary and health secretary. All posts held for around a year, for various reasons. After Labour lost the 2010 election he stood for the post of Labour leader but came fourth behind Ed Miliband, Ed Balls and David Miliband. He again stood for Labour leader in 2015 and came second to Jeremy Corbyn with 19% of the vote. Corbyn won with 60%. He served under Corbyn as shadow health secretary for a year and then resigned to seek election as mayor of Manchester, to which he was elected in 2017 and was then re-elected in 2021 and 2024, to then resign in 2026. In common with virtually all of his front bench, Burnham has never had a proper job outside politics.

Given his time at Cambridge and then in government, Burnham spent the best part of 30 years – a.k.a. most of his adult life – immersed in elite privileged environments, far removed from his much vaunted ‘Heimat’ a.k.a. Manchester. In order to achieve his ambition of becoming Prime Minister he appears to have employed a combination of ruthlessness, guile, and a relentless romanticised localism which may well have increased as he has grown older. In stark contrast to his TikTok output, Burnham’s first speeches in the House of Commons made heavy and repeated reference to the 70s and 80s. For a 25 year-old voter 1979 will be just about as far removed as 1939 was when Burnham entered politics. Equally, a retrospective blame game is 100% at odds with the forward looking ‘Hope’ mantra which he and Healey are wont to parrot.

Perhaps the references to a 50 year-old political hinterland are meant to be a booster to his nostalgic and romanticised localism. Is that where the English degree comes in? He has credited studies of Shakespeare, Dickens and others with assisting his speech creation. Mmm. The general consensus was that his debut (on this outing) speeches were rather plodding and lacking in much vim or verve – and had even less factual content. He has also mentioned Philip Larkin and George Orwell. Did he read ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ before entering Makerfield and convince himself that he would deliver the residents from penury, clogs and slag heaps?

What we do know is that he is extremely keen on decentralisation and that in creating No. 10 North he wants to create a “North Pole that balances the South Pole”. Leave aside the fact that Manchester is only a third of the way up the UK landmass and that there’s rather a lot of places for whom Manchester is down south, there’s a distinct imbalance in all this and he’s simply decentring England round a different pole. It is also a given that regional inequality doesn’t divide neatly into north-south. We learn that the initial set up for No. 10 North has cost £49,000, but that eventual accommodation will cost vastly more and not be ready for 10 years. We may ask when there will be a No. 10 East or West or Real North. Is this whole No. 10 North schtick not a perpetuation of Burnham’s tenure as mayor – and one which he is loathe to leave behind? Far from being a project denoting forward looking innovation, this presents as an intertwining of personal and political motivations. None of which offers any consolation – much less hope – to everybody from points E, S, W and further N who are labouring under all kinds of economic and social disadvantages.

With his fierce inward looking allegiance to the narrow concept of Manchesterism, Burnham is the polar opposite of his predecessor who jumped at every possible opportunity to hop on a plane and get the hell out of the UK. Starmer became notorious for his foreign absences and was resolutely outward looking; Burnham’s travel will likely consist largely of scurrying between London and Manchester. How the latter’s homeboy stance will gel with international obligations remains to be seen. (He looked distinctly queasy as Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband was bellowing about sanctions on Israel in the House of Commons on Tuesday.) Whilst Burnham clings to the location of his last job, Starmer has beaten a retreat to who knows where with self-serving haste.

In line with his adherence to his place and his sentimental personal history, Burnham favours keeping familiar faces around. Thus he has appointed James Purnell, a former Westminster colleague and Blair minister, as his Chief of Staff. A more surprising appointment is that of Louise Haigh who now serves as First Secretary of State, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, making her the most senior Minister in the Cabinet, outranking all other Secretaries of State. As Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Haigh oversees the estates and rents of the Duchy and is responsible for coordinating cross-Government priorities, national security policy, state reform and Civil Service reform. A role of huge responsibility for a person who was obliged to resign from her last government role due to her non-disclosure of a past conviction for fraud – a charge initiated by her then employer Aviva.

This is indeed a remarkable political rehabilitation – which presumably echoes Burnham’s allegiance to the known and familiar and an excessive personalisation of political and professional decision making. A blending of regionalism and personal political identity with national political strategies may cause confusion for Burnham – but even more so for the public. Decentralisation does not mean excessive glorification of the place and people which you’ve just left and which suits your personal convenience and allegiances. He may have flipped with ease through various political incarnations but this is the end game.

Is Burnham ‘Andy from Manchester’ or the Prime Minister of Great Britain? I’m not too sure. Perhaps he isn’t sure either.