Britain’s latest prime minister strode into No. 10 Downing St. this week with an audacious aim – one that has eluded not only his six predecessors over the past 10 years, but also mainstream political leaders across Europe.
Andy Burnham is out to tamp down the social media-fed mood of disillusionment, impatience, and anger fueling the rise of far-right populist parties in the United Kingdom and other European countries. In Britain, the right-wing Reform UK is leading in most opinion polls.
He’ll do so, he said in brief inaugural comments Monday, by showing disgruntled voters that government still works – that it understands the problems holding back the country and their own lives, and that it can, and will, put them right.
Why We Wrote This
As Britain’s seventh prime minister in 10 years starts his role, mainstream leaders across Europe will be watching to see if Andy Burnham can reverse the disillusionment that’s fueling far-right populism in the United Kingdom and other European countries.
Saying that, however, is the easy part.
Doing it will mean navigating the major economic and political constraints that have undone recent British prime ministers, as well as reform-minded leaders in France, Germany, and other major European democracies.
It will also require a resource increasingly rare in today’s political environment – an arena where, as elsewhere in 21st-century life, there’s an expectation of quick results.
He’ll need time.
So, can Mr. Burnham pull it off?
The early signs are that he is aware of the daunting scale of the task.
In his remarks outside on Downing Street, he said that the major, long-term policy shifts he had in mind – his “10-year plan” for Britain’s future – would be unveiled only later this year. He offered, in the meantime, a kind of down payment in restoring trust in government – a clear effort to harvest that vital resource, time.
Promising “breathing space” to help cushion the effects of steep rises in the cost of living, he proceeded to announce over the course of this week a series of initiatives: a program to end homelessness, the removal of a tax surcharge on energy bills, and a cap on bus fares.
He has a number of other things going for him. In contrast with outgoing Prime Minister Keir Starmer – the Labour Party rival whom Mr. Burnham’s supporters in Parliament effectively forced out – the new man is a gifted communicator who relishes connecting on a personal level with politicians and voters.
Among top figures in the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives, he’s the only one able to match the flair of Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK.
Mr. Burnham has also been fortunate in the timing of his arrival.
He took office just as the House of Commons was adjourning for its annual summer recess. That means he won’t immediately have to deal with the rough-and-tumble of parliamentary politics, or the weekly gladiatorial contest with other party leaders known as Prime Minister’s Questions.
And while the summer break would ordinarily have given Mr. Farage the opportunity to fill the lull with headline-worthy appearances of his own, this year is different.
The Reform UK leader has been under unfamiliar media and parliamentary scrutiny in recent weeks, over whether he should have formally notified Parliament of large donations he received from wealthy backers.
With an inquiry underway, he abruptly resigned his seat earlier this month, forcing a special election in which he said he’d let his constituents, in the coastal town of Clacton, decide between him and “the establishment.”
Joe Giddens/PA/AP
But both Labour and the Conservatives denounced the move as a political stunt. The result is that Mr. Farage’s only well-known rival in the race will be a perennial protest candidate who dresses up in a garbage can – rubbish bin or dustbin, as the British call it – and goes by the name “Count Binface.” Still, Mr. Burnham will have to confront far more serious challenges if he is to succeed in marginalizing Mr. Farage’s party.
Mr. Burnham’s policy wish list is nothing if not ambitious.
In addition to continuing the Starmer government’s toughened policy on Mr. Farage’s signature issue of immigration, he wants to fix the education system, ensure jobs for disheartened young people, build much more public housing, address a crisis in the provision of care for older people, reindustrialize the country, and provide urgently needed funds for the military.
All of this is going to require money – in a country that is heavily indebted and has been barely growing economically.
While the financial markets might look positively on targeted investment in economically sound infrastructure projects, the rest of the policy agenda is certain to require hard choices. It might well need significant budget cuts in some areas, potentially including the country’s huge welfare budget, or new sources of tax revenue, or both.
Mr. Starmer, too, took office with a pledge to restore voters’ trust in national government. But he struggled with securing his party’s, and the country’s, support for those choices. And while he did notch up policy successes during two years in office, he ultimately ran out of time.
Prime Minister Burnham, though brimming with confidence as he took over this week, will be keenly aware that his long-term success will depend on showing early signs of progress.
And not just he, but other mainstream leaders across Europe, will be hoping he succeeds.