{"id":2174157,"date":"2026-06-19T17:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T16:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/?p=2174157"},"modified":"2026-08-05T17:04:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T16:04:34","slug":"what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-andy-burnham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2174157-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-andy-burnham","title":{"rendered":"Long read: What everyone gets wrong about Andy Burnham"},"content":{"rendered":"

About half of what has been written about Andy Burnham since he put his hat in the ring to be Labour\u2019s candidate in Makerfield has just been dead wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

But also a great deal of it hasn\u2019t accurately captured what the man who could be Prime Minister soon is really like.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

A good chunk of coverage has been correct, to be fair, as you\u2019d expect when one of Burnham\u2019s own great strengths is being a media friendly communicator with message discipline.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, there\u2019s a broad consensus that he\u2019s a genuine, warm hearted and decent man, who\u2019s been a popular and successful Mayor of Greater Manchester for the last nine years, and that underpins why he\u2019s pretty much the only politician in Britain today with a positive net approval rating.<\/span><\/p>\n

As I said after interviewing him in January this year, he\u2019s by far and away the best communicator in politics today. Lucid, direct and honest, he also seems to genuinely like people. Part of the reason the public don\u2019t like Starmer, or any other member of the Labour A-team, is that they come across as stiff, weird and terrified; the kind of people who didn\u2019t have enough fun at university, while Burnham gives off the vibe of loose, normal and excitable. To coin a phrase often attached to the leader\/owner of the Reform organisation, he\u2019s someone you could sit down and have a drink with.<\/span><\/p>\n

In years to come the Makerfield by-election will be studied by political scientists and branding experts as a lesson in campaigning and in changing the political weather.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Andy Burnham in his Private White VC jacket<\/p><\/div>\n

Part of that is down to its look and feel. For a start, Burnham doesn\u2019t present himself like any other politician. To do that he hasn\u2019t just charged through M&S or Uniqlo and grabbed a basket of smart casual bits and pieces. The commentary has also missed the nuances of his well thought through look. For anyone that cares, the dark blue jacket with the brass zip and the cord collar is from Private White VC. The dark t-shirts and dark jeans are Paul Smith, the fashionably cut knitwear is John Smedley, and the waterproof jacket is North Face. His choice of footwear is black Clark\u2019s suede Wallabees, or Adidas trainers usually from a specially curated special issue.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s almost completely rooted in classic British casual menswear. He almost doesn\u2019t need to say it, but it\u2019s a remarkably patriotic look that places him in a mainstream cultural space.<\/span><\/p>\n

That also contrasts sharply with Starmer\u2019s stiff dances to Taylor Swift, and we may also cast our minds back to Boris Johnson with an England top over his work shirt, or Rishi Sunak awkwardly sporting a pair of box fresh Adidas Gazelles.<\/span><\/p>\n

My sons have spotted Burnham singing along at local gigs to bands you\u2019ve probably never heard of, The Lathums and Fontaines DC, while those of us of his vintage will have seen him enjoying staple Northern Dad rockers New Order and Oasis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Those broad alliances in the creative industries, for example, are both genuine and mutual. Noel Gallagher donated Some Might Say<\/em> for the campaign, as did Elbow\u2019s Guy Garvey with the stirring anthem One Day Like This<\/em>, while Manchester artist Stan Chow\u2019s caricature has given the Makerfield campaign an Obama-esque front.<\/span><\/p>\n

So while one of my lines was going to be that none of the commentary sees how he gets soft cultural power, right on cue, two days ago, came Fergal Kinney in The Guardian with – <\/span>\u2018He understands soft power\u2019: why Andy Burnham put music at the heart of his political identity.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The short attention span of a public and a media runs the risk of conflating campaigning (in poetry, literally, thanks to his Lemm Sissay link up) and governing (in prose as someone famously said).<\/span><\/p>\n

Those who have worked with him closest, and I\u2019d claim to have spent as much time with him as most journalists, note that he\u2019s far cleverer and in grasp of details than many give him credit for. In private the constant pressure he puts on officers is to \u2018bring the receipts\u2019, to show him the data. I don\u2019t think anyone has ever really grasped that aspect of him.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to start being snippy about other commentators and questioning their motives, but the misunderstandings of him fall broadly into three categories: those that are wilfully hostile, others that project onto him what they wish him to be; and then the view from the political lobby that sees things through a Westminster lens.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the third one that\u2019s important because it crosses over into how the next important selectorate – the Labour MPs – view him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Even my friend Joshi Herrmann who wrote a terrific and well lauded profile for The Mill, which got syndicated to The Times and the New Statesman, made a joke about his cat and Burnham\u2019s lack of political philosophy. It\u2019s on that point that I depart.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is that most other would-be candidates can be easily characterised: Ed Miliband and Lisa Nandy are soft left; Angela Rayner is union left; Wes Streeting is Blairite centrist. Burnham could be any of these and none.<\/span><\/p>\n

So far in the Makerfield campaign he\u2019s kept his national policy cards pretty close to his chest\u00a0 – no tax rises, keep the triple lock, do something about immigration, Ukraine, defence, the NHS, stick to fiscal rules. This all gives the slightly misleading impression that he\u2019s just a more self-assured Starmer in casual clothes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet that misses the other dimension to his political positions. He’s in this to change Labour for the long term, not in the lifetime of this parliament, or the next news cycle. He has conceded that he doesn\u2019t have a mandate for electoral reform, and proportional representation, nor does he seem willing to break the Labour manifesto pledges on tax and fiscal discipline.<\/span><\/p>\n

As Jeremy Hunt\u2019s former adviser Adam Smith said in the Telegraph, Burnham seems to say what people want to hear, and this is storing up major political trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Burnham’s last speech in the House of Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

In essence, the first mistake most of this analysis makes is inherently about Burnham\u2019s political philosophy; either that he doesn\u2019t have one, or that it\u2019s grossly misidentified.\u00a0 His book Head North<\/em>, which was an alternative manifesto to the official Labour one in 2024, traced back that political journey with remarkable candour. From Hillsborough to Orgreave, and how he talks about dilapidated high streets and the cost of living pressures. His last speech in the House of Commons was about the scandal of tainted blood.<\/span><\/p>\n

I put it to him in an interview in 2024 that these political roots are part of his formation and his Catholic upbringing. He claims not to be practicing the faith now, but maybe out of respect to his devout mother, who he took to Rome to meet Pope Francis, he has raised his kids through the Catholic education system. That \u2018smell of the sheep\u2019 style of pastoral leadership always comes back to how those with power need to use what they have, for the benefit of those that don\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some argue that is evidence of his character, not his politics, but with Burnham that\u2019s the same thing. It\u2019s a folksy populism that guides his every thought and deed.<\/span><\/p>\n

If you place that view of the world into the Westminster context – and it coursed though Head North<\/em> – then he\u2019s not aiming to slot into a system, but to rip it apart. Electoral reform, a rewriting of Treasury spending rules, an empowering of local government, ripping up the rates system, a senate of the nations and regions. All policies designed to serve the people who\u2019ve been forgotten for generations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Which then brings his next challenge, how that underpinning philosophy affects delivery.<\/span><\/p>\n

The second misunderstanding about him relates to what\u2019s been going on in Greater Manchester in the last nine years, and how the Mayoral project has worked in practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

Greater Manchester had never had a political leader like Burnham before. The previous system which got the city region to the devolution decade we\u2019re living through now was fixed by very clever (mostly) men, who got stuff done and didn\u2019t particularly care for putting a name to it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Manchesterism was his own way of defining Burnhamism, a soft-power Catholic infused business friendly socialism that sought to do the right and decent thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lost count of the number of times he\u2019s rooted a political challenge in the unfairness of it. \u201cIt can\u2019t be right that\u2026\u201d Once you hear it, you preface his stance on pretty much anything into that same framework.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In my first sit down interview with him weeks after he took office, he spoke about co-production of policy, of consensus building. He has been reasonably successful at breaking out policy making from party structures into informed citizens and experts. He has pulled groups around the table to discuss thorny issues. No other politician in Britain today could say what Burnham has said on the proliferation of Wolverhampton taxi licenses in Greater Manchester and not be accused of weaponising a racially sensitive subject. Yet he has, and is edging towards a solution without triggering a riot.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

About two years ago the veteran political journalist Andrew Marr said the appeal of Burnham, and of Manchester, was it was the only political project that offered anyone any hope of a better future. Again, where a lot of analysis makes the mistake of thinking Manchesterism is about doing all the same things but in Westminster, then they haven\u2019t been listening.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Andy Burnham and Sacha Lord celebrate Mayor’s re-election<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ll stop now. But here are the five promised niggles that I worry about that most appraisals haven\u2019t yet priced into a future Burnham premiership, whenever that may come.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

First, is he THAT popular? His three successful Mayoral elections have been on quite low turnouts. Certainly none higher than 40%. He has no choice over his opponents, but he has been blessed with particularly poor ones, particularly so in the Makerfield by-election. Maybe that\u2019s unfair, this is a bitterly divided country, one with alternative information universes that seem to make it impossible to take decency and honesty at face value. Starmer went from winning an electoral landslide to being hated in a few short months. Labour MPs see him as a populist to fight a populist, and that is a very flimsy basis on which to bet the farm.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Second, his choice of friends. I put down a number of his early choices to naivete and a lack of local knowledge, even though he dug in on a few when he had been warned to keep his distance. But the enduring presence of Sacha Lord by his side in Makerfield, and raising money for his future leadership efforts is staggering. Not only was Lord at grievous fault in claiming grants from the Arts Council, and for his subsequent bullying of the media that exposed that truth, Burnham\u2019s defence of him exposes a character flaw. Basically, he\u2019s too nice for his own good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Third, dealing with criticism and pressure. We\u2019ve hardly seen Burnham subjected to the relentless daily intensity of a system being unable to deliver an unpopular policy under his Mayorality. The closest thing to it was a Clean Air Zone for the whole of the city region. Signs and camera masts serve as a permanent reminder of an issue that wasn\u2019t handled well. He listened to the wrong people at the outset and blundered into a Greater Manchester wide scheme that was neither necessary nor viable. The narrative now that he fought back on Boris Johnson\u2019s imposition just doesn\u2019t stack up. Government has these challenges constantly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Fourth, and this is one very directly for business readers of TheBusinessDesk.com. He has courted Greater Manchester\u2019s business community skilfully, but the early promises of the 2017 manifesto on jobs, pay and business haven\u2019t been fulfilled. The Good Employment charter set out basic standards, but its requirement to recognise unions and link membership to public sector procurement is still far away. Businesses who have joined up extol the benefits of an engaged workforce, but its voluntary membership represents a tiny proportion of business as a whole. The Mayor\u2019s Business Advisory Panel was meant to work closely with the Local Enterprise Partnership. Now neither body exists in any meaningful way. It\u2019s almost a footnote to an old manifesto, but it rather speaks to a tendency towards gimmickry.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fifth, and finally, not only is Andy a people pleaser, but people like to please him too. That conferring of his patronage, and being illuminated in the glow of his charisma becomes a distraction. Priorities and workflows shift and ebb due to his own attention and interest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And five things that worry me about him<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":264565,"featured_media":2174160,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120782,136545],"coauthors":[116163],"class_list":["post-2174157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-local-government","tag-featured-story","tag-national","tag-top-story"],"yoast_head":"\nLong read: What everyone gets wrong about Andy Burnham<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"And five things that worry me about him\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebusinessdesk.com\/northwest\/news\/2174157-what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-andy-burnham\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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