The Most Important Labour Leader in a Generation

[Celerity]

Today on TAP: The stakes for Andy Burnham’s success go far beyond Britain.

https://prospect.org/2026/06/22/uk-andy-burnham-most-important-labour-leader-in-a-generation/


Andy Burnham gestures in front of supporters during the by-election in Makerfield, England, June 18, 2026. Credit: Jon Super/AP Photo

As expected, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced his resignation early Monday in favor of Andy Burnham, the popular former mayor of Greater Manchester. To become prime minister, Burnham made the risky decision to run for Parliament in a swing district in Makerfield, west of Manchester, where the far-right Reform party had outperformed Labour in recent local council elections. Burnham turned the by-election into a national referendum on his leadership and candidacy for prime minister. He won by a smashing 20 points. At that point, the succession became inevitable.

What makes Andy Burnham special? First, as three-term Manchester mayor, he turned that depressed city into a national economic success story. Of all English cities, only Manchester has grown faster than London, and has grown at three times the rate of the country as a whole. He defined what he likes to term a business-friendly socialism, which now becomes his model for Britain. Burnham is also a superb retail politician, who invites comparisons with New York’s Zohran Mamdani. One of his signature initiatives was to renationalize Greater Manchester’s bus system, expand light rail, and add reduced or free fares. It was exactly the kind of palpable change that puts money in constituents’ pockets and endears a leader to ordinary people.

Burnham comes across as a regular bloke, angry at the same things that anger regular Brits, and competent to put things right. The fact that he is not from the national Parliament at Westminster—which has produced dysfunctional national parties and seven prime ministers in ten years—is a huge source of strength. His charming northern accent serves as a reinforcement. In his campaign video for the Makerfield by-election, Burnham criticizes both Conservative and recent Labour governments alike as neoliberals who have sold out regular working people. “Westminster doesn’t work for people in this part of the world and communities like this across the U.K.,” he declares. “One of the things that made me most proud recently is someone saying on a doorstep, ‘Andy’s all right. He’s for us.’”

In a Labour Party riven by factional divisions of old left Corbynites, neoliberal Blairites, and technocrats like the politically inept Starmer, Burnham defines a new practical progressivism. Labour has long been all about redistribution. Burnham is all about producing wealth, in a socially just fashion. Can Andy Burnham succeed? He takes office with huge goodwill among Labour MPs, who faced a blowout repudiation under Starmer in the next general election, which is due by 2029. His method is to consult widely. If his program is plausible, he will win overwhelming support in his party.

snip

[cachukis]

1. Thanks. Needed clarity.