Burnham has brought hope back to No.10 - now comes the hard part
Burnham’s first moves suggest a government focused on living standards and everyday concerns — but difficult choices are already emerging
So there we have it: another new face in No.10.
Yesterday, Andy Burnham became the sixth prime minister in seven years, pledging to “bring back hope” to a country that has almost entirely lost faith in the ability of politicians to improve their lives.
He wasted no time. A new prime minister’s first day is always more than a reshuffle, setting the tone for what country this government is about to create. New cabinet appointments, policy announcements and their first address to the nation are all carefully crafted to reveal their instincts long before they have legislation to point to.
Burnham has made a confident start. His first speech was refreshingly optimistic. He spoke without notes, without a lectern, in the language of possibility. He wasn’t quite triumphant — there was no sweeping personal mandate, after all — but he certainly gave voters a sense that whatever had been missing from Westminster could still return.
Whether tone matters more than delivery is an interesting question. Governments cannot survive simply on good vibes, but they also rarely succeed without giving voters a reason to believe. Starmer’s premiership started in the face of doom and gloom and essentially never recovered.
The substance of Burnham’s opening moves matched the message. Cost of living had to be an immediate priority, and today’s announcement that the government would cut VAT on household electricity bills is an intervention that people will notice. It will not solve Britain’s affordability crisis in its entirety, but here, it’s the symbolism that is important. This is a government that sees the struggle and understands it has a role in relieving that.
Equally significant was his first instruction to ministers to prioritise rough sleeping. This sends arguably one of the most important signals about the kind of country Burnham wants to govern: one that judges success not simply by GDP figures, but by whether fewer people are forced into homelessness.
The cabinet itself contains some intriguing choices. John Healey’s appointment as Chancellor was a big surprise. Healey brings experience not just from the Treasury but from housing and defence, two areas that increasingly define Britain’s long-term challenges. Housing affordability, planning reform and chronic under-supply continue to shape living standards across generations, while his high profile resignation as Defence secretary drew attention to the ineffectiveness of a treasury as a tool for long-term change in the face of rising security threats. In many ways, Healey reflects Burnham’s broader political project of reconnecting economic policy with the practical concerns of everyday life.
There are other appointments that fit that mould too. Angela Rayner’s high-profile return to Housing shows Burnham wants to put someone with lots of political capital at the heart of Labour’s domestic agenda, while experienced ministers remain in several major departments to provide continuity during what could prove a turbulent first year.
But some areas raise more questions than answers.
Burnham’s decision to retain Shabana Mahmood as Home Secretary raised eyebrows. Mahmood has become the proud public face of an increasingly punitive immigration strategy designed to neutralise Reform UK by adopting ever tougher rhetoric and policy. Instead, it often had the opposite effect, legitimising immigration as the defining issue of British politics while still failing to convince voters it had the answers. Keeping her in post raises questions about why exactly Burnham feels continuity is the best approach here.
There are also early questions over climate policy. His decision to resume North Sea oil drilling has already prompted heavy criticism, not least because it arrives during another punishing summer heatwave. The government’s argument — that domestic production improves energy security and protects jobs — may resonate with voters in areas of deindustrialisation, but it is dangerous to ignore the broader context. Limiting global warming, and strengthening our national resilience, requires us to reduce our fossil fuel reliance.
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Burnham may have in the back of his mind his relationship with US President Donald Trump, who has consistently pushed allies to expand domestic energy production. But if Starmer’s diplomacy taught us anything, it is that bending to Trump’s demands tends to create more problems than it solves.
These are the kinds of tensions that will define Burnham’s premiership. If first impressions count for anything, he has cleared his first hurdle. His opening speech struck the right note and his focus on the cost of living and homelessness demonstrated a welcome attention to the problems voters actually experience. His cabinet contains some thoughtful appointments.
But some parts are missing, and some, perhaps, feel cowardly. He still has to prove he has the stomach to make truly difficult decisions. The hardest part is yet to come.■
About the author: Zoë Grünewald is Westminster Editor at The Lead and a freelance political journalist and broadcaster.
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I cannot agree with your assessment. He has shuffled but it's more about deck chairs on the Titanic than substance. Of course he had to play with the poor hand he'd been dealt. But to highlight homelessness when so many big issues need urgent attention doesn't look good. And the Cabinet? Labour needs a firm shift to the Left and, once more, it's been been tweaked to the Right.