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After six failed attempts in the past decade, is Andy Burnham the prime minister finally to get Britain back on its feet? The choice of the latest wannabe savior—or rather the anointing—of someone who until a few days ago wasn’t even in the House of Commons seems at first glance a curious one.

The stakes are extraordinarily high. As in France, Germany, and elsewhere in the Western world, the next few years are seen as the last chance to preserve liberal democracy from the onslaught of far-right populism. The cause was not enhanced under the two-year failed tenure of Keir Starmer, who squandered a huge parliamentary majority with his dour incrementalism, while the populist-nationalist Reform U.K. party and the Greens became major forces.

After six failed attempts in the past decade, is Andy Burnham the prime minister finally to get Britain back on its feet? The choice of the latest wannabe savior—or rather the anointing—of someone who until a few days ago wasn’t even in the House of Commons seems at first glance a curious one.

The stakes are extraordinarily high. As in France, Germany, and elsewhere in the Western world, the next few years are seen as the last chance to preserve liberal democracy from the onslaught of far-right populism. The cause was not enhanced under the two-year failed tenure of Keir Starmer, who squandered a huge parliamentary majority with his dour incrementalism, while the populist-nationalist Reform U.K. party and the Greens became major forces.

Friends and foes are projecting onto Burnham their hopes and fears. Some see his criticisms of Starmer as evidence that he will lead a leftist administration, spooking the already-skeptical bond markets with a spending spree that will further imperil the United Kingdom’s heavily indebted finances. His supporters—and there are many—see him as the breath of fresh air that the Labour Party and Britain have been waiting for.

Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown (left) applauds Burnham at a Labour Party conference in Brighton, England, on Sept. 30, 2009.Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The nonaligned see him as a chameleon and don’t know what to make of him. They point out that he first supported Tony Blair—now seen as a sacrilegious figure among many in Labour—then Gordon Brown and then the ardent socialist Jeremy Corbyn. Burnham, who tires of the accusation, and the various jokes at his expense, describes himself as a “team player” who tried to do his best no matter who was in charge.

Burnham cultivates his image fastidiously. He likes to present himself as an unstuffy, ordinary bloke who hates wearing suits, except when he must. He casts himself as an outsider but has spent almost his entire career in politics.........

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