Burnham leaves after his speech without taking questions from waiting journalists.Andy Burnham today showed exactly why Labour MPs are desperate for him to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister as he laid out his vision for the country.
The former mayor of Greater Manchester was pretty much everything the current PM is not.
From the smart-casual clothes he wore to the easy charm with which he delivered his speech, this was clearly a man who – unlike Starmer – is very comfortable in his own skin.
His remedy for the UK’s ills also stand in marked contrast to the man who he will replace in 10 Downing Street in less than a month’s time.
Burnham was clear that he wants nothing less than the complete “rewiring” of the way Britain is run, with a huge shift of power away from Westminster to local communities and regions across England.
That, he said, would lead to the biggest council house building programme of the post-war period, economic growth “in every postcode”, lower energy bills and prices coming down in the shops.
He also signalled a massive change in education policy, with a greater focus on technical qualifications rather than the drive to get more young people to go to university.
“I am going to do things differently,” Burnham declared. “I am going to break with the ‘more of the same’ approach that has got us here.
“I am going to give Britain the circuit-breaker it needs by building a more collaborative politics in Westminster, by taking power out of the centre and putting it in the hands of the people and places who can use it best.”
A bit like motherhood and apple pie, there was little in the speech that any reasonable person could, in good faith, take exception to.
But for all the soaring rhetoric about putting “hope in every heart”, it lacked one important thing: an explanation of how it will all work in practice.
Burnham failed to explain how putting more power in the hands of local politicians rather than those in Whitehall will magically improve the lives of everyone in the country was not explained.
It was therefore unfortunate, to put it mildly, that the many journalists who had been invited to watch the speech were not then given the opportunity to ask him questions about it.
Because let’s not forget, this is a man who was not even an MP a month ago, and yet stands on the threshold of assuming the highest office in the land without even having to go to the trouble of winning a leadership contest, let alone a general election.
What’s more, he is a man who – for all his previous ministerial experience from 20 years ago – has not even been an MP for the best part of a decade.
If this is not the time for him to answer detailed questions about what exactly he plans to do with the reins of power, then when till it be?
How does he plan to stop the small boats crossing the English Channel, for instance, or get to grips with the ballooning welfare bill?
And that’s before we even come to how he plans to deal with the threat posed by Vladimir Putin or repair the UK government’s relations with Donald Trump’s White House.
Which brings us to another – more worrying – difference between Andy Burnham and Keir Starmer.
For all his faults, the soon-to-be-former PM would not have made a speech like that and then refused to take any questions on it.
Listen to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·