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The ‘smilier, sexier’ saviour: Can Andy Burnham fix Britain? · The Front

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: From The Australian, here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, June 24, 2026.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, I.
• 0:12
  Speaker 3: Wish him well, but he's got two problems.
• 0:15
  Speaker 4: Energy and immigration.
• 0:17
  Speaker 5: Maybe there'll be a contest, maybe they won't. I hope
• 0:20
  Speaker 5: there is, because I have absolutely no idea where Andy
• 0:23
  Speaker 5: Burnham stands on anything.
• 0:25
  Speaker 6: If we keep pretending that being prime minister is a
• 0:28
  Speaker 6: popularity contest, we will keep getting people who can win elections,
• 0:32
  Speaker 6: but who cannot run the country, and they end up
• 0:34
  Speaker 6: resigning in the very sad way that Keir Starmer had
• 0:37
  Speaker 6: to do yesterday.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Keir Starmer's out and Andy Burnham is waiting to be
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: anointed Britain's PM.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: But the King of.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: The North's first real test is solving the United Kingdom's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: cost of living crisis while controlling a fractious backbench. Our
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: always hilarious UK politics expert Richard Ferguson is here in
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: just a moment.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: Well, they say a change is as good as a holiday.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And what Britain's really need right now is a holiday
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: from the nightmare that their politics have become. One of
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: our UK politics experts is Richard Ferguson, the Australian's Canberra
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: Bureau Chief. Richard, bringing in Andy Burnham and chucking out
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: Keir Starmer, surely that's going to make everything better in Britain.
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: I think the proof is yet to be in the pudding, Claire,
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: but you have to see Andy Burnham... returned to Westminster
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: after several years as Manchester Mayor to.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: A heroic welcome.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: There were all these, the sea of Labour MPs that
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: wanted to have a selfie with him in.
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: The Great Hall.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: He walked into the House of Commons and everyone was cheering.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: We now come to underburn a member from Makerfield.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: It really was the King of the North has come
• 1:54
  Speaker 4: down to London and saved us all.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: His train was late though, I heard.
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: Yes, he will.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: I mean, but this is why he's going to nationalise
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: the railways and save everybody.
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: I can't wait.
• 2:05
  Speaker 7: To which Keir Starmer will say, actually, I started to
• 2:09
  Speaker 7: nationalise the railways, but nobody noticed. This is the last
• 2:14
  Speaker 7: time I ever get to do my Keir Starmer impersonation
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: for the rest of my life.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: I hope you've been working on your Andy Vernon impersonation.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I know, I know.
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: It's really Manchester accents and Glasgow accents don't seem to
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: go together.
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: So I've got some work.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Well, you're going to have lots of fodder, I think,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: because they say he's the King of the North.
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: He's from Manchester.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: He's just been elected in his kind of home patch,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: the seat of Makerfield, where he did surprisingly well, even
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: though Labour's under assault from Reform UK and an even
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: further right-wing party. called Restore, Andy Burnham surprised everyone by
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: really romping at home and he hopes that that's going
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to deliver him straight to 10 Downing Street.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: We must now.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: Take this path and put this country back on the
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: right path and bring people back together and get things
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: working properly again.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: There's talk of waiting until after NATO and various other
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: things and doing an orderly handover in September.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: That's not a good idea, is it?
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Well, that appears to be Keir Starmer's last act of
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: revenge against Andy Burnham. He's created quite a long timetable,
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: about three weeks up until the 9th of July, where
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: anybody could try and get the numbers to challenge Andy Burnham.
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: And then you.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Have almost a three-month period until he's actually prime minister,
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: if there is a challenge.
• 3:32
  Speaker 8: And I will do everything I can to ensure an
• 3:36
  Speaker 8: orderly handover of power. I will also give my successor
• 3:41
  Speaker 8: my full and unequivocal support, knowing that they will inherit
• 3:45
  Speaker 8: a Britain that is far stronger and fairer than the
• 3:49
  Speaker 8: one I inherited two years ago, better prepared for the
• 3:53
  Speaker 8: challenges ahead, and better able to ensure the Labour Party
• 3:56
  Speaker 8: secures a second term in office.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Now, Wes Streeding, the former Health Minister, was the most
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: likely Blairiter right-wing challenger to Burnham who's on the soft
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: left he has now come out and said I will
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: be backing Andy Burnham all the way clearly because he's
• 4:14
  Speaker 4: been offered a big job maybe Chancellor of the Exchequer
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: but if Andy Burnham does go ahead unchallenged he's the
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: only person to nominate for the Labour leadership he will
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: be Prime Minister you would imagine in the middle of
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: July But even that's a long time. That free week
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: still creates a long period in which people stop asking
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: what's going on with Keir Starmer and start asking what's
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: going on with Andy Burnham, a man whose only plan
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: appears to be that he's smilier and a bit sexier.
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: Well, that's something in politics.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Now, Britain's been here twice before in the past generation alone.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: David Cameron resigned after he didn't get his way on
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the Brexit vote and Theresa May took over.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: She subsequently lost her majority.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Boris Johnson got a huge majority in 2019, but the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: party forced him out in 2022. And Liz Truss came
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: in after him. She lasted just 49 days and you've
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: made great fun of her. You do a good Liz
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Truss impersonation too, Richard. What does history tell us about
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: whether this is a good idea or not?
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: Well, I think that sometimes it can be a success.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: Theresa May to Boris Johnson actually was a great success
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: in the short term because Boris Johnson was everything Theresa
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: May was not. Charismatic, able to connect with people, able
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: to connect with those parts of the countries that voted
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: for Brexit. Sounds a lot like Andy Burnham, doesn't it?
• 5:40
  Speaker 4: There are three types of leadership contenders. The bleeding obvious.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: The anybody but that bloke. and the rank outsider. Andy
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: Burnham is the rank outsider. He is not part of
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: the cabinet. He is not part of the Westminster bubble,
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: despite the fact he used to be a long-term part
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: of the Westminster bubble when he was a minister for
• 6:02
  Speaker 4: Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.
• 6:05
  Speaker 5: And then he's quite similar in that respect to Mark Carney.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: Mark Carney, replaced Justin Trudeau, who was really struggling after
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: 10 years in office. He'd been the governor of the
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: Bank of England, the governor of the Bank of Canada.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: He was not a part of the establishment. And he
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: is the clean broom who came in and he won
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: an election for the Liberal Party of Canada, which nobody
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: believed he would win. He's since then managed to pick
• 6:29
  Speaker 4: off members of the Canadian Conservatives to come and join
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: the Liberals to create a majority.
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: And The clean broom is usually the best way to go.
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: If you can't go that way, you do go for
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: the bleeding obvious, which is the heir apparent.
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: That's your Paul Keating. That's your Julia Gillard.
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: That would have been, I think, Angela Rayner in the
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: British context if she had not fallen to that tax scandal.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Turmoil in British politics today as the UK's deputy prime
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: minister is forced to resign. Angela Rayner referring herself to
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the independent ethics advisor after admitting to not paying enough
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: stamp duty tax on a personal property.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: If you can't get someone from outside, if you don't
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: have an obvious successor in the cabinet, that's when you
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: end up with the anybody but him term.
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: And I think Theresa May was a bit of an anybody.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: But him, except she was anybody but Boris Johnson, who
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: fell apart after Brexit. You have Scott Morrison's a bit
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: of an anybody but that bloke, you know, came up
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: through the middle.
• 7:33
  Speaker 5: It worked. He was a bit of a new broom.
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: But then it became clear that he had no kind
• 7:38
  Speaker 4: of base within the party.
• 7:39
  Speaker 5: And it was very superficial.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: And that's when it all fell apart from him and
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: he ended up being, you know, losing to Anthony Albanese
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: in the way that he did.
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: And in the meantime, voters had started becoming nostalgic for
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: the ones that they hated before, for Tony Abbott and
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: for Malcolm Turnbull.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: The same with Rudd-Gillard.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Rudd, you could kind of argue that changing leaders is
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: worth the price that you pay in terms of credibility
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: and trust from voters because you eke out your time
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: in politics. And if you are a diehard believer on
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: one side of politics or the other, you're all about
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: just getting into power and getting some change done. I
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: don't think anyone in the Albanese government would regret the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: years that they spent in power in the Gillard government,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: for example, now. But is it really worth it? Is
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: it worth having a few extra years in government? I'm
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: talking now about the good of the country. And in
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Andy Burnham's case, his choice is either sit out the
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: prime ministership for as long as he can or go
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: to an election as soon as possible?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: What do you think he will do and what should
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: he do?
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: Well, he has promised the Labour MPs, of which there
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: are a lot, thanks to Keir Starmer, there is a huge,
• 8:44
  Speaker 4: huge majority, much bigger than Boris Johnson's, only one MP
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: short of Tony Blair's 1997 landslide against John Major. He
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: has promised them not to go to an election because
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: most of them will lose. A good chunk of them
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: will lose. Now, it is clear that the Burnham victory
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: in Makerfield really took.
• 9:04
  Speaker 5: The wind out of Nigel Farage's sails.
• 9:09
  Speaker 9: Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield by-election by more than 9,000 votes,
• 9:16
  Speaker 9: handsomely beating Nigel Farage's Reform Party.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: And there was another by-election, which no one else is
• 9:22
  Speaker 4: talking about, in Aberdeen, where the Tories actually won a seat.
• 9:26
  Speaker 5: Imagine that, the Tories winning a seat in Scotland.
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: But they won that because they were seen as the
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: more serious alternative and they made that into a referendum
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: on oil and gas. So it is clear that people
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: across Britain are voting tactically to avoid a Nigel Farage government.
• 9:44
  Speaker 5: That might not work in the end.
• 9:46
  Speaker 4: There might be enough of a push, especially if things
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: don't go well for Andy Burnham in the short term.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: But Andy Burnham is now in a very strong position
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: where he doesn't have to go to an election. He
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: can go to an election whenever he wants It's in
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: his choosing. He has three years of MPs who are
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: giving him a lot of goodwill.
• 10:06
  Speaker 5: And he has a very weakened Nigel Farage.
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: It may end up being that the winner of all
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: this is the Tory leader, Kemi Badenoch, who's starting to
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: make some headway with right-wing voters in against Farage and
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: who may benefit from Andy Burnham going hard left and
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: spending too much money.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I really wonder though, Richard, if the backbenchers in the
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: Labour Party are going to be Andy Burnham's problem.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, they were Keir Starmer's problem.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: They didn't show him much gratitude for having called themselves
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: into Parliament in the first place. They crushed his attempts
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: to do the kind of welfare reform that analysts in
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: Britain say is needed if they're going to pay for
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: a high defence budget and get the debt down. he
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: was humiliated again and again, and ultimately now they've abandoned
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: him completely. Doesn't Andy Burnham have to get those people
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: under control if he's going to achieve anything that makes
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Labor look credible whenever an election is held?
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: I think he does, but that's the difference between Andy
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: Burnham and Keir Starmer, which is that Keir Starmer's problem
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: appears to be that he refused to talk to people.
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: He didn't even talk to his own cabinet.
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: An interesting point When he resigned, the Prime Minister did
• 11:13
  Speaker 4: not tell his staff in Number 10 that he resigned.
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: His chief of staff did it.
• 11:19
  Speaker 8: I want to thank the brilliant Number 10 staff and
• 11:22
  Speaker 8: our country's extraordinary civil service who dedicate their lives to
• 11:27
  Speaker 8: public service.
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: Keir Starmer really didn't have any interest in his party.
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: He didn't really have any interest in doing politics. He
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: saw himself as a bureaucrat. He might be a very
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: good head of the cabinet office, but that doesn't make
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: you a prime minister.
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: At two ends of the political spectrum, Richard, there seems
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: to me from a distance to be a big sense
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: of unease in Britain. On one end about violent crime
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: and that some people, for example, Nigel Farage from Reform,
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: blame on high immigration and a problem generally with small
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: boats and high immigration in the country causing angst. On
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: the other end of the spectrum, there's been a perception
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that the government of Keir Starmer is way too woke,
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that they struggled on issues like puberty blockers, that they
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: struggled to identify what a woman was, that there was
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: a suppression of civil liberties by police officers showing up
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: in people's houses and arresting them for Facebook posts. Where
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: is all of that sort of ideological unease? Where does
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Andy Burnham sit in all of that, given that he's
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: on the serious left of the Labor Party?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: Is he very woke?
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: Well, this appears to be where Andy Burnham's pragmatism has
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: kicked in. Many people in his faction of the Labour
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: Party despise the Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who has introduced
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: Tony Abbott-style tough immigration policies. And he has decided to
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: back Shabana Mahmood. He has made it clear he will
• 12:48
  Speaker 4: not be changing her policies. She's very likely to stay
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: as Home Secretary, if not promoted to Chancellor. She's another
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: person being talked about, Chancellor. But he has been very
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: pragmatic on immigration in that seat. He has walked back
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: his previous statements that he'd like to rejoin the European
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: Union because it was, as we said, it was such
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: a huge leave seat maker field. He has been quite
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: pragmatic on that. The trans issue isn't one he's really
• 13:18
  Speaker 4: dealt with. It will be interesting to see how that goes.
• 13:21
  Speaker 4: Part of Keir Starmer's huge problem has not been voters
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: going to reform.
• 13:26
  Speaker 5: It's been voters going to the Greens.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: This is Anthony Albanese's worst nightmare, which he managed to
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: kill off in 2025, right? And that the Greens have
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: been sitting at like 15% in the polls. At one point,
• 13:38
  Speaker 4: they were ahead of Labour in the polls. Zach Polanski,
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: the Greens leader, who is a absolute quack, but charismatic,
• 13:46
  Speaker 4: has been very successful. But Andy Burnham did a fantastic
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: job in Makerfield of making sure everyone that was voting
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: for the Greens and the Liberal Democrats voted for Labour.
• 13:54
  Speaker 4: And in a first-past-the-post system, there are no preferences flowing
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: to him. He just needs to get those voters back.
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: So if he gets the Greens voters back on his left,
• 14:03
  Speaker 4: that's actually going to help him electorally.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: What are voters looking for from Andy Burnham in the next.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Weeks and months, Richard.
• 14:15
  Speaker 4: I think ultimately, as Neville Rann once told Bob Hawke,
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: all they care about is the content of their wallets.
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: We can talk about woke issues. We can talk about immigration,
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: the murder of Henry Novak. That didn't appear to work
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: for Nigel Farage in Makerfield, where he lost by 20 points.
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: All of these issues are salient, important issues that people
• 14:35
  Speaker 4: care about. But ultimately, it is petrol, the price of bread,
• 14:40
  Speaker 4: the price of milk. This is why Pauline Hanson is
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: doing well in Australia at the moment, because all of
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: those three things are too high. And if Andy Burnham
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: doesn't do anything about cost of living and goes and
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: just puts up people's taxes, then that.
• 14:56
  Speaker 5: Is how he's going to lose.
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: Richard Ferguson, thank you very much.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: Thank you.
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Richard Ferguson is the Australian's Canberra Bureau Chief. The Australian
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: subscribers were the first to know that Keir Starmer was
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: resigning and they get unrivaled access to the best analysis
• 15:15
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