Latest / The Front / Can Andy Burnham save ‘Broken Britain’?

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Can Andy Burnham save ‘Broken Britain’? · The Front

0:04
Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, July twenty one, twenty twenty six. What's the
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Speaker 1: greatest threat to Australia. Turns out we are deeply divided
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Speaker 1: on this question, with supporters of One Nation and the
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Speaker 1: Coalition much more concerned about China than left leaning and
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Speaker 1: university educated voters. That's an exclusive figure from the latest
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Speaker 1: newspol survey Live now at the Australian dot com dot au.
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Speaker 1: He wears a T shirt and sneakers with his suit
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Speaker 1: jacket and speaks with a proud Northern accent. Andy Burnham
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Speaker 1: is Britain's new Prime Minister and he couldn't be more
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Speaker 1: different from the pms who've gone before. And he's talking
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Speaker 1: big change too, from more offshore oil to renationalizing public infrastructure.
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Speaker 1: But can the so called King of the North possibly
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Speaker 1: fix the place even locals call broken Britain? That's today's story.
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Speaker 2: I go with good grace, I go with a smile,
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Speaker 2: and I go proud of everything that we have achieved.
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Speaker 3: Another prime minister has gone another prime minister.
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Speaker 4: That is our challenge to make politics work, to make
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Speaker 4: it work better.
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Speaker 1: Well, Britain has a new Prime Minister and he's got
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Speaker 1: a massive job ahead of him, not least restoring some
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Speaker 1: faith in what seems like a pretty broken society. Richard
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Speaker 1: Ferguson is the Australian's Federal Political Bureau Chief and also
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Speaker 1: one of our experts on UK politics. Richard andy Burnham
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Speaker 1: does he make you feel hopeful as a Britain that
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Speaker 1: there is a way out of what has seem like
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Speaker 1: some pretty darkies for English politics.
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Speaker 2: No, Claire, absolutely not, because even before Andy Burnham was
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Speaker 2: set to meet the King and become Prime Minister, there
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Speaker 2: was already infighting between his camp, between the camp of
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Speaker 2: Ed Milliband, who everybody in the left of the Labor
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Speaker 2: Party wanted to make the chancellor, and he's been talked
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Speaker 2: out of it by unions, business leaders, members of the
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Speaker 2: Labor right. He is facing lots of questions about whether
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Speaker 2: he actually has any detailed plans. He's wanted to be
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Speaker 2: Prime Minister for decades now, and yet there's no suggestion
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Speaker 2: of any detail of what he's actually going to do
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Speaker 2: when it comes to this kind of what he calls
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Speaker 2: basically the reversal of forty years of economic and social
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Speaker 2: policy starting with Thatcher and going on to Blair and Brown.
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Speaker 2: I kind of think of that as Keir. Starmer was
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Speaker 2: the stuffy headmaster that everybody hated, so they've put in
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Speaker 2: and the cool teacher who everyone likes and everybody thinks
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Speaker 2: he's their friend. And anybody who works in a school
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Speaker 2: will tell you that the cool teacher is the one
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Speaker 2: that usually everything falls apart under.
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Speaker 1: I heard an unimpressed conservative commentator describing him as a
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Speaker 1: guy in a black T shirt who wears Misscara, which
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Speaker 1: is also a claim I know that's been brought against
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Speaker 1: Jedd events. Do you think he does wear Miss Scara?
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Speaker 2: Well, I'm not wearing Misscara, but I am actually dressed
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Speaker 2: as Andy Burnham for anybody that's watching on YouTube and
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Speaker 2: on any of our platform channels. So I'm not going
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Speaker 2: to criticize Andy Burnham for wearing black teas and suits, Claire,
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Speaker 2: but he definitely he's so different to hear Starmer in
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Speaker 2: every way. It's stuffy versus casual, it's London versus Manchester.
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Speaker 2: It's no personality versus maybe a little too much personality.
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Speaker 2: He's so different and he's a very good communicator. There's
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Speaker 2: no doubt about that, he is very good. But the
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Speaker 2: question is is the mirror of Manchester the scene as
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Speaker 2: being the Prime Minister of Britain.
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Speaker 4: This is a proud moment you have given me and
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Speaker 4: my family today and an emotional one, but it is
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Speaker 4: one for which I am ready. I am ready ready
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Speaker 4: to lead and to build on the foundation laid by
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Speaker 4: one person more than any other. Undercrestant Well.
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Speaker 1: His big achievement is Mayor of Manchester. According to him,
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Speaker 1: was taking back into public ownership the public transport assets
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Speaker 1: and making buses, for example, much cheaper for people to
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Speaker 1: use in Manchester. And he wants to take that idea
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Speaker 1: and make it national, renationalizing assets that had been sold
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Speaker 1: off like water supplies for example.
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Speaker 4: A moment ago more power to improve your high street,
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Speaker 4: backing local businesses such as the pubs and the shops
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Speaker 4: that bring them to life. Make no mistake, everybody, I
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Speaker 4: will be a pro business leader of the Labor Party
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Speaker 4: as I was a pro business Mayor Todd Greater Manchester.
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Speaker 1: This is coming as Britain is in a public sort
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Speaker 1: of utility crisis. Really there's a drought and a heat
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Speaker 1: wave going on, and people in large parts of Britain
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Speaker 1: don't have any water because the privatized water supply companies
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Speaker 1: aren't failing. That you would think would give impetus to
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Speaker 1: this desire that he has for nationalizing things. How far
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Speaker 1: do you think he's actually going to take that or
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Speaker 1: is that just the kind of thing you say before
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Speaker 1: you actually get into number ten.
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Speaker 2: Look, it's interesting as well because his version of nationalization
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Speaker 2: is kind of devolution plus nationalization. So it doesn't so
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Speaker 2: much want all of these companies to be on by Westminster.
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Speaker 2: He wants them to be owned by councils what we
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Speaker 2: would call ste governments and England are kind of mega
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Speaker 2: councils like the one in Manchester, or there are governments
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Speaker 2: like the one in Scotland and the one in Wales.
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Speaker 2: But he hasn't really details, of course, any of this.
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Speaker 2: I've rad this is actually going to work, but there
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Speaker 2: is enough room in the manifesto of the Labor Party
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Speaker 2: that they took to the twenty twenty four election that
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Speaker 2: he could get away with that. Now, the thing about
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Speaker 2: governments in Britain compared to governments in Australia is that
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Speaker 2: they produce a detailed manifesto before the election which has
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Speaker 2: all of their promises all of their views and they
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Speaker 2: are very much expected to stick to that manifesto and
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Speaker 2: if they break it, the pressure that comes on for
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Speaker 2: an election is pretty massive. So he has that really
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Speaker 2: strangling any ambitions he may have, because he has to
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Speaker 2: live with Kirstarmer's manifesto, which famously didn't have much in
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Speaker 2: it because Kairstarmer didn't have a plan and Kirstarmer didn't
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Speaker 2: want to give the Conservatives anything to label him Jeremy
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Speaker 2: Corbyn in a nice suit. So he's going to struggle
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Speaker 2: with that. He's going to struggle with the kind of
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Speaker 2: very tight fiscal rules that everybody has tried to obey
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Speaker 2: because the British government owes so much to the bond
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Speaker 2: markets and nobody wants to repeat of Les trust and
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Speaker 2: the chaos that was caused by her with her disastrous
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Speaker 2: Bury budget.
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Speaker 1: This was massive, a mini budget turned MAXI the biggest
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Speaker 1: tax cuts in half a century.
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Speaker 2: So he has a lot of constraints, and then he
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Speaker 2: has these factions that have put him into power and
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Speaker 2: now seem to be kind of fighting over who's going
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Speaker 2: to be in his cabinet. So I think it's going
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Speaker 2: to be very hard for Andy Burnham and a little
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Speaker 2: bit of charm and not being Keir Starmer only takes
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Speaker 2: you so far.
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Speaker 1: Kemmy bed knock the letter of the Conservatives. She seems
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Speaker 1: to be making Conservatives in Britain feel a little bit
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Speaker 1: more helpful. She'd sittly got an ability to talk in
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Speaker 1: a way that previous Conservative leaders have struggled with to
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Speaker 1: connect with ordinary Britains.
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Speaker 5: The Honorable Member for Bradford West gave a moving and
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Speaker 5: funny speech. I especially appreciated her comments about black and
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Speaker 5: brown faces on TV or as my children say, oh
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Speaker 5: look it's mummy again.
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Speaker 1: She's also kind of saying nice things about Andy Burnham,
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Speaker 1: isn't she, which is very refreshing, and he's saying kind
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Speaker 1: of nice things about her. How do you think the
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Speaker 1: contest between the two of them will go? And are
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Speaker 1: they both actually fighting the real enemy, which is the
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Speaker 1: far right party's reform and restore I.
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Speaker 2: Think that they are kind of fighting the same enemy.
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Speaker 2: But these may be the two best leaders that either
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Speaker 2: of their parties have actually had. And years for Labor
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Speaker 2: Jeremy Corbin and Ed Meliband and for Breton going back
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Speaker 2: to Theresa me and as just as the ald Establishment
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Speaker 2: parties are at their lowest. They've got the best communicators
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Speaker 2: they've had in a long time.
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Speaker 1: Coming up. A shocking murder shakes Britain's politics. That's after
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Speaker 1: the break. Yeah, they both managed to sound heartfelt about
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Speaker 1: the big thing that's been going on in British politics,
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Speaker 1: which is the murder of Anne Whittacombe, a former Conservative politician.
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Speaker 1: She was retired but had become a kind of beloved
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Speaker 1: political figure. She'd been on Dancing with the Stars and
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Speaker 1: she was campaigning for the Reform Party when she died.
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Speaker 1: She seems to have been murdered in quite horrific circumstances
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Speaker 1: in her own home. She was a seventy eight year
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Speaker 1: old lady, and both of them seemed to be able
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Speaker 1: to talk about her as a human being rather than
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Speaker 1: as a political figure.
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Speaker 5: She was a woman of high principle, profound beliefs, with
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Speaker 5: a wicked sense of humor, a wonderful combination of being
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Speaker 5: a serious person who did not take herself too seriously.
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Speaker 1: What does the death of Anne Whittacomb kind of mean
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Speaker 1: for British politics? It makes it feel very dark, doesn't it.
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Speaker 2: It's very dark. I consider Unwhitticcomb for people who don't
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Speaker 2: know horror listening to our podcast. She's a bit like
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Speaker 2: Bromwin Bishop I think could have been a big figure.
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Speaker 2: Was maybe a bit too colorful for the times, maybe
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Speaker 2: a bit ahead of the times too. You know, some
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Speaker 2: people have said in Britain there wouldn't have been a
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Speaker 2: Nigel Farage without Anne Witticcomb. You know, she was kind
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Speaker 2: of a conservative populist before it was popular.
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Speaker 3: There will always be every year some cases of a
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Speaker 3: genuine claim for political asylum, but those people didn't come
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Speaker 3: from safe countries. And that is the point that we
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Speaker 3: must always.
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Speaker 2: Remember because obviously absolutely shocking what's happened to Anne Whittocomb,
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Speaker 2: and there's been obviously the police saying it wasn't terrorism
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Speaker 2: and then getting the counter terrorism police involved, I think
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Speaker 2: has hurt the trust in the British police. Yet again,
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Speaker 2: when you think trust in British police can't get any lower,
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Speaker 2: they kind of do something like that. But violence is
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Speaker 2: something that has permeated British politics for a long long time.
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Speaker 2: I mean, you can go back to kind of the
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Speaker 2: nineteen tens, in the nineteen twenties, especially the strain of
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Speaker 2: Ireland running through debates from the nineteen twenties where there
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Speaker 2: was nearly a British Civil war. People never ever talk
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Speaker 2: about this, but there was nearly a British civil war
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Speaker 2: over the Ireland question. And then you'd fast forward to
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Speaker 2: the seventies and eighties where you have MPs like Aary Neve,
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Speaker 2: who was the great mentor campaign manager for Margaret Thatcher
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Speaker 2: when she became Leader of the Tories, was assassinated. There's
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Speaker 2: obviously the Brighton bombings that tried to assassinate Thatcher. And
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Speaker 2: then you go, now you know you have MPs killed
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Speaker 2: and stabbed, and now you've had what's happened to Anne Wickham.
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Speaker 2: Despite the fact that Britain prize itself as being a
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Speaker 2: kind of gradualist society compared to the more revolutionary societies
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Speaker 2: like America or France, there's actually there's a violent bent there.
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Speaker 2: But I think it's just really grown, especially ever since
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Speaker 2: the global financial crisis, which Britain has just not really
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Speaker 2: recovered from these repeated political and economic crises.
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Speaker 1: There were form Ledgel Farage is in trouble for taking
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Speaker 1: money from a couple of rich people.
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Speaker 2: Did Nigel Farage break parliamentary rules by accepting a five
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Speaker 2: million pound gift from a Thailand based crypto billionaire and
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Speaker 2: not declaring.
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Speaker 1: It one of the purposes of that money, orso at
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Speaker 1: least some of it was his own personal security. And
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Speaker 1: Farage has kind of overtly linked and Whittikm's death to
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Speaker 1: the fact that he and other politicians feel unsafe. He's
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Speaker 1: now running for his seat again to try and kind
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Speaker 1: of give himself a new mandate. Seems to be running
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Speaker 1: against the same garbage bin who run against Andy burn
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Speaker 1: As far as I can tell.
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Speaker 2: HI can't be in face here and I'm ary to
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Speaker 2: go by the Clacton by election, and my goodness to me,
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Speaker 2: there's no lesson.
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Speaker 1: What happens now for Nigel Farage. Do you think he'll
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Speaker 1: get reelected and what does that mean for Andy burnhaman government?
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Speaker 2: I think he definitely gets re elected Claire, because he
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Speaker 2: is as you see, he is running against a man
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Speaker 2: who dresses up as a garbage can promoter space His
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Speaker 2: name is code Ben Fees. This happens to Britain. This
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Speaker 2: obviously doesn't happen in Australia because nobody in Australia is fun.
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Speaker 2: But when you get to see when you get to
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Speaker 2: see MP's and it helps his first past the post.
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Speaker 2: So you get these people lining up and it's kind
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Speaker 2: of the Prime Minister, count Binface, Elmo and Adalek. You
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Speaker 2: don't get that because you don't get the spect They
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Speaker 2: don't get to stand there on the stage because we
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Speaker 2: have to do preference votes and maths as usual, removes
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Speaker 2: the fun of everything. Clear, but he should win. He
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Speaker 2: should win. I've count Binface wins then I think we
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Speaker 2: can say it's Curtains for the Reform Party. But he'll win.
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Speaker 2: But he looks like a fool. He clearly wanted to
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Speaker 2: use this to try and hammer the Labor and Conservatives
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Speaker 2: in the seat of Clacton, where he currently is. He
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Speaker 2: wanted to make the conversation about him again and he
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Speaker 2: just looked like a bit of a fool. And it's
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Speaker 2: possible that he'll face another by election because the Parliamentary
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Speaker 2: Standards Committee still want to investigate this donation and maybe
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Speaker 2: when he comes back say well, no, you've actually broken
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Speaker 2: the rules and will boot you again. So the people,
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Speaker 2: poor people of Claxton may have to face two by elections.
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Speaker 2: I think if the second word to happen. Nigel Farage
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Speaker 2: has a history of kind of cutting and running. He
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Speaker 2: has a history of not running elections. He thinks he's
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Speaker 2: going to lose in just stepping away because it's too hard.
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Speaker 2: And this is what I think, especially Kemmy baid knock On,
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Speaker 2: the Conservatives have been relying on that everything will fall
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Speaker 2: apart now, a bit like Pauline Hanson in One Nation.
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Speaker 4: Here.
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Speaker 2: I think it's wrong to underestimate Nigel Farage. It's wrong
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Speaker 2: to assume that everything's going to fall apart. There is
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Speaker 2: a new energy here that has not existed in Forage
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Speaker 2: is similar incarnations, a bit like Pauline Hansen. But it's
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Speaker 2: not been a good time for Nigel Farage at all,
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Speaker 2: and he's going to find Andy Burnham a lot harder
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Speaker 2: than Keir Starmer. But Andy Burnham might give him all
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Speaker 2: the material he needs soon enough.
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Speaker 1: Well, maybe the ban will get elected eventually. Richard, thank
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Speaker 1: you very much.
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Speaker 2: Thank you.
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Speaker 1: Richard Ferguson is The Australian's Federal Political bureau chief. You
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Speaker 1: can check out all the latest from Britain and the
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Speaker 1: world right now at the Australian dot com dot au