After the painful ruse of Starmerism, the left should be cautious about Andy Burnham | Owen Jones

"Labour's failures have made a rightwing authoritarian government not just a nightmare, but a plausible next chapter. Having enraged its natural voters many of whom have flocked to the Greens Labour MPs have clambered on to a lifeboat named Andy Burnham. Do the rest of us blindly hop on board? Burnham is, indisputably, Labour's best bet. He is the party's most popular politician, and surely the figure best placed to win back voters lost to both the Greens and Reform."

"But he has also benefited from not being at the centre of the great national political controversies of our age. To be blunt: if he wants support from the left, which he will need to win power at a general election, he will have to earn it. Six years ago, Keir Starmer stood on a leadership platform that included public ownership, hiking taxes on the well-to-do, scrapping tuition fees and putting human rights at the heart of foreign policy."

"In retrospect, it now appears it was a deceitful ruse to con the Labour membership into installing a faction dedicated to crushing the left. A failure to scrutinise Burnham after that experience would smack of fatal naivety. The first test must concern his own political journey. Burnham is a former Blairite special adviser who voted for the Iraq war."

"Under Ed Miliband, he shifted towards the soft left as shadow health secretary. After Labour's rout in 2015, he launched his leadership bid in an accountancy firm linked to tax avoidance, attacked the mansion tax as spiteful and abstained on Tory benefit cuts. In doing so, he handed the Labour crown to Jeremy Corbyn. Having once incinerated his leadership hopes with contempt for the left, has he learned his lesson?"

Labour’s losses have increased the likelihood of a rightwing authoritarian government. Some Labour MPs are aligning with Andy Burnham as a potential way to regain voters who have moved to the Greens and Reform. Burnham is described as Labour’s most popular politician, with progressive achievements as Greater Manchester’s mayor and broad appeal. However, he has not faced major national controversies, so support from the left must be earned. His past includes voting for the Iraq war, serving as a Blairite adviser, later shifting toward the soft left, and taking positions such as attacking the mansion tax and abstaining on Tory benefit cuts. The question is whether he has learned from earlier contempt toward the left and whether his recent claims are genuine.

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