This year’s Labour party conference was the Andy Burnham show—and his audience in Liverpool go home today eager for the next episode. At points Burnham felt more performer than PM, but a shining star might be just what a fractured Labour party needed to be guided back together.
Ahead of the prime minister’s speech, Labour members remarked on how much better the mood was compared to last year. Few noted the absence of Keir Starmer, whose premiership suddenly felt a distant memory. After getting Labour into government with such a large majority, his actions left behind little prominent legacy. Instead, people seemed present-minded and excited for what Burnham was going to announce. There was a good feeling in the air—good vibes you could say.
“Vibes” has been a key buzzword during Burnham’s first 10 weeks in office. He’s been knocked from all sides for prioritising style over substance, and letting his charisma do the heavy lifting. But the feeling in Liverpool went beyond “just vibes”. There was a genuine sense of optimism, and the prospect of real change felt tangible.
Burnham’s enthusiasm and ability to connect with people has drawn comparisons with New York city mayor Zohran Mamdani, who won support on the left by communicating his steadfast passion to make his city a better place. Mamdani translated that passion in an authentic way, with great political effect; Burnham mirrors this enthusiasm and ability to connect with people. And just like Mamdani, he has a lot of passion for one place in particular.
It’s Burnham’s time in charge of Manchester which fellow mayor, Oliver Coppard, believes has given him the ability to connect with people. “You do your politics differently as a mayor”, says Coppard, mayor of South Yorkshire. “It’s about saying, ‘I’ve got a long-term vision for what this place could be, and I’m going to look people in the eye when I take decisions and think about how this affects people, not just how it affects the system or how it affects the economy’.”
Whatever vibes Burnham cultivated as Manchester mayor, he’s now amplifying on the national stage. Yes, he’s the Oasis guy; the yellow bus guy; the guy who did the Great North Run in under two hours. But the promise of a real change in Labour’s fortunes comes through the fact that, even for those on the left of the party, he’s the unification guy.
Despite considering herself on the “hardcore left”, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP—embodying the optimism of the conference in her laughter—said “even I’m willing to give him a chance”.
Crediting Burnham for the good conference mood just ahead of the leader’s speech, she explained: “he just said Labour things in a Labour way and now we sound more like Labour. And people are just happy to hear us sound like Labour. I’m happy to hear us sounding more like Labour.
“It just identified what a lot of us in the PLP [Parliamentary Labour Party] knew—we had a serious communication problem before. But obviously it’s going to come down to the proof being in the pudding.”
Burnham speaks about concepts like neoliberalism regularly and with ease, and emphasises ideas of political economy as a way of understanding the current state of the UK. For some, the introduction of this rhetoric is a welcome change in governance style and might already be winning back voters on the left. Freddie Feltham, one of the hosts of the left-leaning, Labour-adjacent podcast, What’s Left? told a conference panel that Burnham’s leadership is the reason behind new polling which suggests the majority of Green and Liberal Democrat voters would be open to backing Labour, depending on the party’s future direction. “Andy Burnham is now talking left and it’s the type of talk that [my co-host] Jovan and I, who as young people became Labour activists, were enraptured by”, he said adding that the left now “have a home in Labour”.
Neal Lawson, the co-founder and chair of the Labour-affiliated centre-left pressure group Compass, told me about Burnham’s strength in appealing to both working-class voters, some of whom are “Reform-curious”, as well as those who were pulled towards the Greens and Liberal Democrats, citing Ed Miliband’s recent sanctions on Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
“The Greens can take a lot of credit for Andy Burnham because they created the pressure that told Labour it can’t keep going to the right… so I hope that pressure from the left continues and pulls Labour to a more radical and bolder position, because if it doesn’t, it’ll be the far-right that are doing the radical, bolder politics”.
Echoing both an appreciation and scepticism of Burnham’s rhetoric, Lawson also said: “What I want to see in government is more of that bigger transformative thinking. He’s narrating his own premiership, but can he do that at the same time as he does the big shift stuff as well?”
Following his announcements in his leader’s speech—scrapping the pensions triple lock to create a “national care service”; electoral reform; reforming leasehold—Burnham has a lot of big promises to keep. His government’s first Autumn Budget, on 28th October will be his next test. But for now, the prime minister appears to have injected the energy that the Labour party has been lacking for some time.
