𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Why does Andy Burnham want to be Prime Minister? Some politicians are driven by personal ambition. Boris Johnson famously said as a child that he wanted to be “world king”, and it was more than a moment of youthful whimsy. He’s the type of person who believes he should always be the centre of attention.

David Cameron once said he wanted to be Prime Minister “because I think I’d be good at it”. And then you get the likes of Theresa May, driven by a sense of duty and her Christian faith to try to make the world a better place.

Labour and the Conservatives aren’t that different. Tony Blair, like Boris, has a raging ego. Gordon Brown, like Theresa May, wanted to serve.

Andy Burnham appeared to have a clear answer when he first announced plans to abandon Manchester and storm into No 10. He’d served at the heart of Government, as a minister in the Blair and Brown administrations. Then he went to become a mayor in the North-west and saw first-hand how London-based governments were failing the regions of England.

Mr Burnham had been at the coal-face, working closely with businesses, transport services, schools and hospitals, and he knew what they needed. Now, he would return to Westminster and reshape central government so that it truly served the nation as a whole. What a great story!

But there was another narrative. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch set out to portray Mr Burnham as a nice guy who wanted to be liked but lacked guts, and lacked substance.

She called him “a pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt”. He was a “people pleaser” who relied on “vibes” but was terrified to make the big decisions, according to Kemi.

The consensus at Westminster is beginning to swerve in her direction. And that’s across parties.

You might be surprised how often Labour and Conservative MPs agree with each other, at least when it comes to judging personalities. They felt Keir Starmer was a bureaucrat who didn’t understand politics. They were in awe of Tony Blair’s ability to communicate with voters and win elections. They felt Jeremy Corbyn was dangerous – because he came close to becoming prime minister in 2017 and would have been a disaster. You heard these views from Tory and Labour MPs more or less equally.

Andy Burnham got off to a good start, and opinion polls still show Labour in the lead, but it’s beginning to look shaky. Does he actually want the UK to rejoin the EU’s freedom of movement area? He appears to give different answers on different days, leaving No 10 officials to try to explain the position to the media.

He didn’t apologise for slavery during his visit to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, but didn’t exactly refuse to apologise either.

He wants to create a National Care Service but, following a big conference announcement, we don’t know what it will offer or how it will be paid for. There’s a review taking place instead.

Bear in mind that there will be a long consultation even after Mr Burnham does announce his preferred options. But for now, we don’t know what the options are.

His admission this week that he might not publish a long-awaited “10-year plan” until 2027 has sealed the deal.

It was his choice to promise a 10-year plan. Nobody forces a Prime Minister to produce one.

And when he started talking about it, back in July, many people assumed it was more or less ready to go. He seemed to know what he was doing.

But he doesn’t. Work on the plan is ongoing, and it’s still not ready.

So what exactly is the point of Andy Burnham? He got rid of Keir Starmer, and he’s very hard to dislike on a personal level, but does he know why he wants to be Prime Minister? It’s beginning to dawn on both enemies and allies that he might not.