Keir Starmer’s Labour is a sinking ship – Andy Burnham offers a lifeboat

‘Useless, regional, and a load of bollocks.’

Those are just some of the words of Labour MPs loyal to Keir Starmer this week about Andy Burnham’s progressive, anti-Reform intervention ahead of Labour’s conference in Liverpool. 

The atmosphere is becoming febrile after Burnham’s modest policy proposals, as Downing Street sources brief about the size of the Greater Manchester Mayor’s ‘ego’. 

Housing Secretary Steve Reed did the morning media round today and dismissed Burnham as a regional politician who shouldn’t break a commitment to serve a full term in the North West. 

Burnham’s mini-manifesto has been seen as a warning to Starmer that a challenge is coming, and the Prime Minister’s allies are reacting with inevitable fury. 

But taken another way, Burnham can see his party is heading for an iceberg, and is offering them a lifeboat, whereas Team Starmer seems content to go down with the ship.

From the reaction, you would think Burnham has spent the last year loitering at the door of Downing Street with a sign saying ‘Starmer out’. 

But no, he’s a critical friend of his party under Keir Starmer – arguably to prevent it from morphing into the Tories 2.0 and suffering the same fate.

Sure, with a high profile intervention like this, Burnham looks more critical than friend, but let’s look at the facts. 

This month, Labour have averaged 21% in opinion polls,  just a few points ahead of the beleaguered Conservatives, while Nigel Farage skyrockets above 30%. 

That rating, to misquote D:Ream, can only get worse. 

And what does the Prime Minister offer in the middle of this collapse?  Take a look at Starmer’s X profile and it’s just bloodless platitudes about ‘renewal’ and ‘real patriotism,’ like he’s rearranging adjectives on ChatGPT, while scandal threatens to consume his fledgling government. 

Burnham, by contrast, is out there connecting like an average bloke, similar to Nigel Farage, sharing pints of bitter with the Japanese Ambassador and playing in a charity football match. 

On policy too, Burnham looks streets ahead. 

While Starmer’s allies brief that he might commit to ‘movement’ on the two-child benefits cap in his set piece conference speech, Burnham has broken cover, calling it the worst of Westminster politics.

He’s also demanding a mansion tax so that billionaires in Knightsbridge stop paying less council tax than nurses in Manchester. 

Whatever you think of the details, it’s action – not management-speak.

But the reaction tells us all we need to know. The Labour machine has committed to self-sabotage. 

The fact that they see Burnham simply acknowledging Labour’s mess as treason is simply absurd.

I’ve interviewed Andy Burnham quite a few times over the years. He’s not afraid of ambition – he has even candidly told me he doesn’t know what the future holds. 

However, he’s not daft either. He knows what he’s doing when he announces ‘a plan for the country’ and confirms MPs have asked him to knife Starmer, just five days before Labour’s annual conference. 

But he’s also aware that if he refuses to rule out a return, as he has again today, the media will follow him everywhere around Liverpool for a soundbite.

It is sort of like Boris Johnson at the Tory conference in 2018 – officially just another non-government figure, unofficially the gravitational centre of the whole thing. 

Burnham will be the unexpected headline act next week because members are sick of the advertised one. The contrast is brutal and accurate.

Keir Starmer’s popularity ratings are hovering in the direction of Liz Truss during the aftermath of her disastrous mini-budget, while Burnham is the only major politician with a net positive favourable rating. 

At the conference next week, Starmer will present a one-hour keynote that equates to saying nothing at all. 

‘True patriotism,’ this, and ‘a historic US trade deal,’ that – all nicely brought together by his robotic, unconvincing monotone. 

Burnham, for whatever you may think of his politics, does not communicate like this. He talks as though you could actually find him in a pub watching Everton.

His ‘broad manifesto’ is unfinished, although he currently has convincing ideas, and a strong track record as Mayor. 

He brought buses back under control and capped a single bus fare at £2 in the process, even as Starmer’s government raised the nationwide cap to £3.

Burnham introduced A Bed Every Night programme, helping thousands off the streets and cutting rough sleeping. 

Meanwhile, Starmer is tweeting his way toward irrelevance and governing his way towards disaster. He has cut the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, tried to trim disability benefits, and overseen internal chaos while outwardly everything is under control. 

Sure, Burnham is no silver bullet for Labour, or the country’s woes. He would have to give up his mayoralty, contest a by-election, mobilise 80 MPs to get nominations, and then prove that he could survive the Westminster meat grinder again.

Ambition and straight talking are not inherently a bad thing, or a sign of naked disloyalty. That is something Starmerbot MPs don’t realise. 

Labour is sleepwalking. Reform is surging. The Tories are scraping by. And the only senior figure in the party willing to say as much is the one the leadership wants to ignore.

Useless, regional, and a load of bollocks? Those words belong to the Westminster bubble obsessed leadership sleepwalking the party off a cliff – not to the man offering a safety net. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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