Andy Burnham could turn out to be the U.K.’s most left-wing prime minister yet

Keir Starmer announced his resignation as Labour Party leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on June 22. Most political observers assumed his replacement would be Labour MP Andy Burnham. It was only a question of whether he would be acclaimed or face the prospect of a leadership race he would win handily.

It ultimately turned out to be the former.

Burnham, a former mayor of Greater Manchester who had just been re-elected to the House of Commons in the Makerfield byelection, overwhelmingly earned the support of his party caucus. He reportedly secured the nomination from 379 of the 403 Labour MPs, or 94 per cent. No one was foolish enough to oppose him for the leadership, which led to a coronation on July 17. He then accepted an invitation from King Charles III to form a new government on July 20.

The irony of all this?

The new Prime Minister has no mandate from U.K. voters. He inherited a super-majority in the House of Commons from his incompetent predecessor, Starmer, who had lucked into this role after 15 years of Tory rule and barely lasted two years as PM. The political and economic damage Burnham will undoubtedly cause in the next two to three years will be unmerciful.

There’s also a very strong possibility that Burnham could turn out to be the U.K.’s most left-wing prime minister in history. Let’s examine some reasons why.

A self-described socialist and soft left ideologue, the new PM had previously dabbled with New Labour and claimed to be a former “Blairite.” His short-lived stint with New Labour aside, he’s always been more of a radical than a moderate when it comes to politics. His past tenures in Westminster and Manchester prove this. He’ll likely govern the U.K. in a similar fashion, too.

Burnham has also described himself as a supporter of Manchesterism. This has nothing to do with former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli’s use of the term “Manchester School” in 1848—or his critique of 19th-century Manchester Liberalism that was espoused by free trade and free market supporters like Richard Cobden, John Bright and others. Burnham’s definition is the inverse of what it used to be. His version of Manchesterism signifies the “end of neo-liberalism,” “business-friendly socialism” and “a modern and functional response to the high-inequality, low-growth trap that came from the 1980s’ drive to privatise economic power and overcentralise political power in the Treasury.”

The general public was exposed to glimpses of this dual left-wing philosophy during his first address to the nation as PM on Monday.

“In the 1980s, Britain took some wrong turns,” Burnham said. “Political power was centralised, economic power privatised, large parts of the country deindustrialised, and they still haven’t recovered. Many feel as though they’re still in decline and they don’t have the ability to turn things around. And that’s why we will change politics to make it more collaborative, more about problem solving than point scoring.”

What’s his solution? “We will take power out of here, and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more, and in doing more, build a new economy, where we put life’s essentials back under stronger public control to make them affordable to you again, reindustrialising Britain using public procurement to back British industry.”

Burnham is therefore calling for a left-wing and socialist outlook in the U.K. He wants greater degrees of public sector influence and an emphasis on a statist mentality when it comes to the day-to-day operations of government, business and more. Burnham also favours a reduced role and influence for important concepts like free trade, free markets and freedom from state control, union interference and more.

Here are a few more pertinent lines from Burnham’s speech. “We will help more young people into work by changing the education system and giving them more support, more mental health support, and we will build more council homes. That is the fair and sustainable way to bring the welfare bill down, to meet our fiscal rules, and to honour our commitments on defence to our international partners. We will help people to live well, building a more preventative state, investing in people’s success rather than paying for failure, and that work starts now.”

Long story short, Burnham is a left-wing interventionist who unequivocally supports concepts like a nanny state, welfare state and a cradle-to-grave outlook for his country. In spite of his claim that he believes in “business-friendly socialism,” which is a complete contradiction in terms, his point of view largely opposes business and is primarily friendly to socialism.

When U.K. voters rejected the Tories and supported Labour in 2024, they ended up with Starmer’s political incompetence and horrific economic record. Two years later, they’re about to witness Labour move even further to the left under Burnham’s premiership. The future doesn’t look terribly bright right now.

The moral of this story? You often get what you vote for and, in some cases, what you never expected your vote would give you.

Michael Taube is a political commentator, Troy Media syndicated columnist and former speechwriter for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. He holds a master’s degree in comparative politics from the London School of Economics, lending academic rigour to his political insights.