Manchester’s mayor has come a long way from his past as an identikit New Labour apparatchik
Inevitably there has been speculation about the future of the current Labour leader in the face of a ruinous set of local election results for the party, including the loss of the Hartlepool byelection. Now the idea of Andy Burnham as the next leader of the party is gaining traction after an impressive performance in the Manchester mayoral election. One poll found he would be the favourite to replace Keir Starmer, ahead of Sadiq Khan.
Burnham first ran for the Labour leadership in 2010. I remember it clearly because I was also in that contest. It was me running against four male candidates who were virtually interchangeable. They were all white, male, Oxford- or Cambridge-educated, former Labour party special advisers, mentored by senior figures in New Labour; and they all wore identical dark suits, complete with tie. Most important they all basically had the same New Labour politics. Perhaps the only thing that singled Burnham out was his long, dark eyelashes. As candidates we addressed more than 50 hustings up and down the country. It was my first opportunity to observe Burnham closely. In many ways he was an identikit New Labour apparatchik. But even then, you could see the glimmerings of an effort to shape his own brand, by stressing his northernness.
