Is Golden Andy Burnham’s crown slipping?

IT’S BEEN A short honeymoon.  Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20th July 2026. His initial message of hope – and a few eye-catching policy announcements – led to good ratings in the opinion polls for Labour.

Just two weeks later, we have to ask whether he is making mistakes. Keir Starmer was popular when the Labour Government was elected in July 2024. He became unpopular when he took decisions which were more Tory than Labour and when he made mistakes and tried to U-turn his way out of them. Here are three actions Burnham has taken which hint he may be following in Starmer’s footsteps.

Stop the Boats
Right from the start, Burnham backed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policies. These are far more at home in the Tory Party – or even Reform – than they are in Labour. They consist of some stupid measures designed to shift immigration to a temporary leave to remain, with immigrants who are granted asylum or leave to remain being demonised. Not only has Burnham backed these policies – he’s kept Mahmood on as Home Secretary, to implement them. Stupid statements on immigration, such as the suggestion that the UK should send people of Bangladeshi heritage back to Bangladesh after the fall of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that alienated Labour communities from Starmer.

Early release from prison scheme
Keir Starmer’s response to prison overcrowding was to introduce a system to release prisoners early. Prisoners have always been able to get an early release on parole once they were half way through their sentence – but the Starmer scheme has reduced this to one third of their sentence.

Police Constable Andrew Harper was investigating the theft of a quad bike when teenagers he was trying to talk to drove off. PC Harper was caught up in the car and dragged along for a mile or so. What a horrible way to die. What a horror for his family to have to live with. When his relatives spoke out about the injustice of his killers being freed after serving one third of their sentences, they caught the attention of the public and the Prime Minister.

Burnham said he would review the early release scheme. Hopes were up: he was going to go in their and thump the table and say this was not on… right? Wrong. Burnham exempted those guilty of serious sexual crimes, but he would not go far enough to exclude PC Harper’s killers – because otherwise the prison system would become so overcrowded it would collapse. That is what civil servants have been saying, and Burnham appears to have swallowed it. That is not a good sign, and Burnham may come to regret it – just like Starmer came to regret keeping the two-child benefit cap (before he U-turned and abolished it).

Holiday
After two weeks as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham has now gone on an overseas family holiday with his children. MPs, even Prime Ministers, should be able to take a holiday – but this one is too soon. It makes the PM look like he doesn’t care. Worse, the Clacton by-election is coming up: polling day is 13th August, just over a week away. This by-election is not a done deal. Burnham is the main who wants to lead the fight against Reform. He beat Reform in Makerfield. He should be pumping out Anti-Reform propaganda for the next nine days.

Burnham has made a number of very positive policy announcements so far – though, after saying that all his policies would be costed, he has been caught making uncosted promises. It would be interesting to know who suggested that he remove VAT from domestic fuel bills and pay for it by scrapping Starmer’s ID card plan. It would be even more interesting to know why no one checked up on the cost of ID cards and found the money it needed was not in the budget, so there was no financial saving from scrapping it.

It’s early days, but voters can’t just sit back and assume Burnham will deliver. “That which is falling should also be pushed,” said Nietzsche. He who wants to be Prime Minister should also be pushed too.

●Read more about it:
With Burnham in No. 10, is Labour coming home?
Andy Burnham smashed it – but he’s no Lutfur Rahman