𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Our newly-coronated PM took to the airwaves on Sunday to (kind of) deny he will call an early general election. This, despite the fact Andy Burnham really has no mandate, notwithstanding his insistence that in Britain we vote for the party and not Prime Minister. Yes, but… If Burnham wants to veer dramatically from Labour’s 2024 manifesto, he really needs to call a general election to make his logic work and to get out from under Sir Keir Starmer’s legacy.

However, if Burnham does not veer from the 2024 manifesto then what exactly was the point of replacing Sir Keir in the first place? As for no early election, does that mean Our Andy won’t be calling one until the very last moment of August 2029? Come on. If Labour was well ahead in the polls, he’d have already called one by now.

Talking up an early vote, by the way, isn’t just the wishful thinking of Nigel Farage fans. On a recent podcast, ‘uniparty’ luminaries George Osborne and Ed Balls (wife of the Health Secretary, no less) speculated that Burnham’s blitz of policy announcements could be a sweetener for an early poll.

Again, if Burnham is sticking to the 2024 manifesto – if this is merely Starmerism minus Starmer – then what the hell was the point of Burnham throwing his old chum out of the window?

Just for a vibes change? Really? It’s a stretch to say it was Sir Keir who veered from his own manifesto and Burnham is merely bringing Labour back to it. This is the same Andy Burnham who wants to introduce radical tax changes like a wealth tax and a land value tax, which were never part of the 2024 manifesto.

That’s before we get to radical devolution plans (which, by the way, conveniently exclude deciding if illegal immigrants can be housed in your local area) and public ownership policies. Again, nothing about these in the 2024 manifesto.

Lest we forget, Our Andy was first in line calling for a general election when the Tories kept chopping and changing leaders. Back in 2022, he said: “We need to start demanding a General Election at the end of this Tory leadership election. They were all elected on a manifesto promise to level up the North and are all abandoning it.”

And when it was rumoured the Tories would scrap the ‘levelling up’ agenda after Boris Johnson, Burnham wrote: “The Tory Party’s majority is based on promises to the north. If they do this, demand a General Election.” Then again here is a PM who has U-turned on his U-turns – from trans rights to the EU – so should we 100% trust his somewhat equivocal denial about an early election?

The point is this – if Burnham wants to stray from the 2024 manifesto, he needs to call a general election, but if he doesn’t stray from that manifesto then what exactly was the point of replacing Sir Keir?