Josh Simons gave up his seat to get Andy Burnham into Parliament. Then he told LBC not to expect too much. “He is not, in one fell swoop, going to fix all of the Labour Party’s problems and all of the country’s massive problems either,” the outgoing Makerfield MP said on a Sunday in May, a few days after he resigned.
A Spectator column published on June 26 takes that warning further than Simons did. Its argument is in the headline: Burnham is not the messiah.
The by-election
The columnist grants that Burnham won the Makerfield by-election by a considerable margin, and that Labour could have found it a tough seat to hold. But the piece says Reform “handed it to him on a plate” with a candidate the party had clearly failed to vet. It asks whether that is all it takes to be seen as a prime minister in the eyes of Labour MPs.
Labour backbenchers, the writer says, whisper Burnham’s name with a near-crazed glint in the eye, the way the writer imagines Beatles fans looked in their heyday. The column describes him being cast as a steady, experienced figure waiting in the wings, a King Arthur out of Silbury Hill, the anointed King in the North.
The record
The columnist says that case rests on little examination of what Burnham achieved at Westminster or as Mayor of Greater Manchester. He first came to national attention as a young minister, nicknamed Bambi for his doe-like brown eyes and soft skin, and was Health Secretary between 2009 and 2010. The column links that period to the contaminated blood scandal, says the public inquiry that followed exposed long-standing failures in how the crisis had been handled, and says Burnham’s own record in the job was repeatedly questioned.
After the 2010 election, the piece says, he was politically damaged and spent several years out of the national spotlight before returning to run for mayor.
His supporters point to Manchester’s Bee Network as his signature achievement. The columnist cites industry figures who have dismissed it as a costly smoke-and-mirrors operation propped up by large taxpayer subsidies.
Brown, Badenoch and the system
The writer draws a parallel with Gordon Brown, praised as Chancellor and then, in the column’s view, exposed as limited and thin-skinned once he became prime minister. A broader complaint follows. Career politicians, it argues, collect senior titles while avoiding hard decisions, and the system rewards that. The column points to Conservative home secretaries and immigration ministers who gained reputations as experienced operators while net migration rose sharply.
Burnham, the writer says, has spent his whole career inside that system. Kemi Badenoch, by contrast, has shown less urge to rush in with an opinion on everything.
“‘Andy can do it,’ we’re told,” the column ends. “He’s ‘The King of the North’, the man to save Labour. It’s not true.”
Simons, who is 32, said the decision to resign took him two or three days. Asked about rewards for standing aside, he ruled out the House of Lords. He also rejected the label “noble puppeteering.” “It’s an election,” he told LBC. “The power is in the hands of my constituents.”
Sources
- Andy Burnham is not the messiah | The Spectator Australia
- Andy Burnham is not the messiah
- Andy Burnham 'is not the messiah' warns MP who gave up his seat to put him in Parliament | LBC
