Andy Burnham has won a huge victory for Labour in the Makerfield byelection, opening up the path for him to challenge Keir Starmer for the party leadership and to become the UK’s next prime minister.
Unlike the low-stakes infighting nonsense that we often have, this is really important.
Multiple polls have shown that not only is Andy Burnham much more popular than Starmer (big surprise, who isn’t?), but that he’s more popular than Farage. And that is a big deal, because almost nobody else is.
He’s an attractive choice for the left, and he’s attractive for Northerners who want change - two camps which Starmer has well and truly lost.
Not really… but I bet there’s quite a lot who’ll simply follow the current party line, so if the Labour leader were to steer things leftwards towards the centre (or ideally past it), many of them would follow it.
Starmer stood for Labour leadership on a considerably lefter platform than the vague stuff Burnham’s been saying. Burnham as PM isn’t going to change Labour’s current policies. He might be better at campaigning. When people realise that nothing’s going to change, helped by the rightwing press, they’ll turn on him too.
I live in a place where, realistically, the next MP is going to be Labour or Reform. I’m a member of the Green Party, but I’d vote Labour if Burnham was leading it. I wouldn’t at the moment.
Burnham will dance to the same Labour Together and Labour Friends of Israel tune, just like Starmer and Streeting. The person who stepped down for him was a parachuted Labour Together think tank leader, and Burnham has refused to call the genocide in Palestine a genocide. He has committed to the bizarre liberal “fiscal rules”, he has committed to Shabana Mahmood’s home office policies.
He will be the same shit with a slightly different fragrance.
Would you prefer the Farage wins the next UK general election?
Got to echo this.
Unlike the low-stakes infighting nonsense that we often have, this is really important.
Multiple polls have shown that not only is Andy Burnham much more popular than Starmer (big surprise, who isn’t?), but that he’s more popular than Farage. And that is a big deal, because almost nobody else is.
He’s an attractive choice for the left, and he’s attractive for Northerners who want change - two camps which Starmer has well and truly lost.
Are any of the Left still in the Labour Party?
Not really… but I bet there’s quite a lot who’ll simply follow the current party line, so if the Labour leader were to steer things leftwards towards the centre (or ideally past it), many of them would follow it.
Starmer stood for Labour leadership on a considerably lefter platform than the vague stuff Burnham’s been saying. Burnham as PM isn’t going to change Labour’s current policies. He might be better at campaigning. When people realise that nothing’s going to change, helped by the rightwing press, they’ll turn on him too.
I meant the general population, really.
I live in a place where, realistically, the next MP is going to be Labour or Reform. I’m a member of the Green Party, but I’d vote Labour if Burnham was leading it. I wouldn’t at the moment.
That’s a fair and sensible position.
Burnham will dance to the same Labour Together and Labour Friends of Israel tune, just like Starmer and Streeting. The person who stepped down for him was a parachuted Labour Together think tank leader, and Burnham has refused to call the genocide in Palestine a genocide. He has committed to the bizarre liberal “fiscal rules”, he has committed to Shabana Mahmood’s home office policies.
He will be the same shit with a slightly different fragrance.