Andy Burnham does little to hide his true ambitions with a by-election launch promising ‘change’

IIf someone wants to make a speech saying they want to be prime minister without saying “I want to be prime minister”, Andy Burnham has given a masterclass in how to do that.

The mayor of Greater Manchester opened the byelection launch, declaring it was a “change byelection” and reassuring those in attendance that he was the “change” candidate.

In his white T-shirt, black jeans and centrist dad dark jacket, he deftly presented himself as the political outsider preparing to head to Westminster to clean things up.

For black-and-white movie fans, this looked like Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.”

Then you remember that this is a man who has been a regional mayor for almost a decade, having wielded enormous powers in the region and representing the governing party in this contest.

Not only that, he was a former special adviser at Westminster before becoming an MP for 16 years, rising to senior ministerial positions in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

But this insider and representative of the ruling Labor Party frames the prospect of being elected at Makerfield as a “change”.

Everyone stood there watching the speech, knowing exactly what he meant, and it had nothing to do with changing Makerfield.

Mr Burnham claimed “change” meant forcing Westminster to deal with “proud” post-industrial communities like these that had always been “overlooked”, and asked why they were “faced with a Westminster system that puts them at the bottom of the list rather than at the top”.

He also stated that “change” is something that needs to happen in the economy, housing, care, the education system and politics.

But what he really means is the change of prime minister. The floodgates finally opened and we got a hint of this when he promised to “change the Labor Party” as his grand finale.

Although Mr Burnham did not name Sir Keir Starmer, it was clear he actually thought the change meant he would go to Westminster and replace him as Labor leader in No 10.

In the background of the launch were a number of Labor MPs, including left-wingers Rebecca Long-Bailey and Barry Gardiner, and former Makerfield MP Josh Simons, who led Mr Burnham’s leadership but resigned, allowing him to stand.

Rather oddly, they were working shoulder to shoulder at the launch with chief whip Jonathan Reynolds, whose job it is to ensure there is no change in Downing Street but has a Greater Manchester constituency.

With the possible exception of Mr. Reynolds, these MPs were also seeking change. The change they want is for Mr Burnham to be in Downing Street and Sir Keir out.

To be fair, all choices come down to two positions: “change” or “stability.” In this case, people want the first one.

This is why Labor lost every seat in the Wigan area in the last council election; mostly Reform, including the man representing Nigel Farage’s party, Robert Kenyon, a local plumber with an interesting history of deleting social media accounts.

If Mr Burnham had not framed this by-election battle as the beginning of a wider drive for change in the party, he would have lost to Mr Kenyon and there would have been little point in putting himself forward.

So the mayor of Manchester can talk all he wants about wanting to take the bus from Makerfield to Everton games or reversing 40 years of Thatcherism (where he played a role as health secretary bringing the private sector into the NHS) but we all know what he really wants.

The people of Makerfield also want to be prime minister, the biggest prize in British politics.