Burnham will face the same economic bind as Starmer (Photo: number10gov/Flickr)
Andy Burnham paid tribute to his predecessor Keir Starmer on Tuesday as he promised “politics done differently”. But the new prime minister will struggle to find a way out of the cost of living crisis that marked Starmer’s time in office.
Starmer announced his resignation as a member of parliament just hours before Burnham was set to make his first speech in the House of Commons as prime minister.
It paves the way for a by-election in the London constituency of Holborn and St Pancras, where the left could do well.
Following in the footsteps of Starmer, Burnham has dragged Britain further into the inter-imperialist war over Ukraine and made us all a potential target of Russian aggression.
He said that the position Starmer took on Ukraine as prime minister “is one which I will not change, whatever the threats we face”.
After devastating floods in Nepal, Burnham confirmed his commitment to tackling the climate crisis. On the same day, the Met Office confirmed that this summer has been the hottest on record in Britain.
But, he made no mention of whether he plans to add fuel to the fire by going ahead with new drilling for North Sea oil and gas.
He also promised to do more to address Britain’s prison capacity crisis. Burnham has rightly announced an end to the injustice of indefinite IPP—Imprisonment for Public Protection—sentences. These have kept people behind bars long after they have served their initial sentence.
But Burnham also wants to continue the Starmer government’s crackdown on migrants in small boats. He said that “extra police numbers on French beaches are beginning to deliver real results”.
And one of his answers to prison overcrowding is “deporting more foreign criminals”.
Burnham devoted much of his speech to addressing the cost of living crisis.
He said, “Britain is not where any of us would wish it to be. Things are not working as they should. Life is too expensive and too hard for too many.”
The Labour leader blamed the “failed economic model” of neoliberalism.
“Britain’s water industry stands as a leaking monument to that approach, a country run in the private rather than the public interest,” he said.
His solution is re-industrialisation and economic growth in every postcode along the lines of the model he adopted as mayor of Greater Manchester. His Manchesterism combined investment in some areas—such as public transport—with a massive growth in private sector-led housing development.
Many of Burnham’s reforms will come as a breath of fresh air for workers.
They include a council house building programme not seen since the post-war period. And, he says there will be more public control over essential services, although he has stopped short of nationalising the water or energy industry.
But Burnham will face the same economic bind as Starmer.
On the day he made his speech, it was announced that government borrowing costs are at an 18-year high. And the outbreak of fresh fighting between the US and Iran has pushed up global oil prices.
Burnham’s disdain for the neoliberalism of Margaret Thatcher’s era will strike a chord with many. But we live in an age of catastrophe and political polarisation where social democratic reforms don’t fit with the times like they used to.
The deepening climate breakdown, imperialist wars, vast inequality and economic crisis we face are driven by the capitalist system, not just its neoliberal variant.
Many on the left hope that a Burnham bounce will block Nigel Farage’s route to parliament.
But there are already signs from pollsters that Reform UK is gaining ground again.
If Burnham deals with the crisis by attacking migrants, it will not stop the far right rise. And the outcome could be catastrophic.
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