Now that he’s officially the Prime Minister in waiting, Andy Burnham is trying to work out how to stop Labour MPs from turning against him in the same way they turned against Keir Starmer. He’s got a letter from nearly 80 backbenchers calling on him to ‘refresh’ the party’s immigration policy, and he has already apologised for the party’s stance on Gaza. Burnham said yesterday:

‘I know many people feel that at the start of Israel’s military action in Gaza my party didn’t get it right and I am sorry about that. The response has too often not been good enough. We need to do better.’

Starmer’s basic pitch when he was leader of the opposition could also have been summed up as ‘we need to do better than the last lot’ – often without articulating precisely how he would be better. Burnham has a slightly different problem, in that he often does set out how he would do things differently – but then changes his mind.

Starmer fell into the trap that so many prime ministers find themselves in

Starmer fell into the trap that so many prime ministers find themselves in

Either way, he still inherits a Labour party that is fractious........

© The Spectator