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Analysis
What Andy
Burnham’s first speech as Labour leader tells us
Peter
Walker
Senior
political correspondent
The
incoming prime minister showed his oratorical skill and that he is prepared to
borrow from populism
Fri 17
Jul 2026 17.02 BST
Nearing
the end of his speech accepting the Labour leadership, Andy Burnham paused. “I
know what to do,” he said. “I have a plan.” Perhaps he does. But even after
half an hour of dense rhetoric, it is still not especially clear what this is.
Burnham,
who will become prime minister on Monday after this formal party coronation, is
a politician who runs largely on vibes, and that was the driving force of his
address to the Labour faithful in central London.
It was a
necessarily artificial occasion. Shabana Mahmood, who as national executive
chair announced the result, barely contained her laughter as she set out how
Burnham had taken 379 nominations from Labour MPs against one for Catherine
West, and cast that as essentially a party in-joke.
As soon
as a suit-clad Burnham began his victory address, two things were immediately
reinforced. The first – and this is in no short measure the reason he was
standing there – is that the new prime minister is a much, much better orator
than the man he replaces.
A speech
rich in resonant language was delivered confidently and with both sincerity and
humour, at times self-deprecating, showing an almost Johnsonian sense of
mischief that Keir Starmer appears to lack entirely.
The
second striking point was how much Burnham’s themes borrowed from populism,
albeit lightly, and infused with togetherness rather than Nigel Farage’s
division and anger.
A long
section harking back to the fate of steelworks, mines and shipyards almost
echoed Reform’s laments about deindustrialisation, even if Burnham’s response
is to pledge support to the fate of communities left behind by this, rather
than vainly promise a new era of manual labour.
Similarly,
there were numerous references to football, a subject Burnham trots out on an
almost reflex basis to emphasise his man-of-the-people credentials, much as
Farage does with pubs and pints.
On the
other side of the ideological divide, Burnham’s references to hope, and
particularly the closing line – “That’s my mission as your new leader, to bring
back hope. I believe in all of you, and I am confident we can do it” – could
have been spoken by Zack Polanski, pioneer of his own brand of left-leaning
populism.
For
veteran Burnham-watchers, many themes were deeply familiar, particularly the
condemnation of how the UK’s economic reshaping under Margaret Thatcher left
many places abandoned, plus a solution based around devolving powers.
The
backbone of the speech involved five broad pledges, four of them not dissimilar
to those made by several previous prime ministers before the brutality of the
day-to-day business of Downing Street yanked them from the balmy uplands of
rhetoric to the trench warfare of government.
There
would be no factionalism, Burnham promised, part of his appeal to Labour MPs.
That said, the associated claim that he had “supported all our Labour leaders
in my lifetime” was extremely cheeky, given he has just forcefully evicted one
from No 10.
Other
pledges included “a problem-solving rather than a point-scoring approach” to
politics; a promise to govern for the whole UK and not just his north-western
heartland; and a mention of his much-discussed devolution plans.
If there
was a radical core to the speech it came with the remaining promise, to be
“more Labour”, something Burnham billed, without modesty, as “the most
significant change moment in our politics for 40 years”.
“As your
leader, I will set a direction that is distinctively Labour. We won’t try to
out-Green the Greens, or out-Reform Reform,” he said. “We win by being us –
boldly, confidently, authentically us.”
But even
here, what few examples were set out tended to be both familiar and on the
general side, for example his promise to bring political control back to
people, and to make the essentials of life such as water, housing and transport
more affordable, with a greater measure of government control.
Amid all
this, the line with perhaps most significance was barely noticed, a passing
reference early in the speech. Referring to the speculation about his cabinet,
Burnham said: “Contrary to what you may keep on reading, I haven’t made any
decisions yet about who will be in that top team.”
Can that
be true? Burnham’s arrival as prime minister is now so imminent it can be
measured in hours. Does he really still not know even the basics of his
cabinet?
Most
likely this was spin, more reassurance to those left bruised by the partisan
punishment-beatings handed out by Starmer’s No 10. If he has a plan, he surely
has an idea of who is best placed to deliver it. And time is running out. With
just a final weekend of preparation, the massed ranks of reality arrive on
Monday.
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