Andy Burnham doesn’t speak for us, say voters in South: Mail poll shows new PM faces a legitimacy crisis

Andy Burnham faces an extraordinary crisis of legitimacy when he enters Downing Street today.

The Daily Mail’s exclusive poll reveals that many outside the stronghold of Manchester question his right to become Prime Minister after secretly seizing power.

When he takes over from Sir Keir Starmer this afternoon, the former mayor of Greater Manchester will promise immediate help with living costs as he tries to fend off calls for a general election.

But the poll found the self-styled King in the North faces a challenge to win over voters across the country.

In the South East of England, less than a quarter (24 per cent) believe his rise to power (having returned to the House of Commons just a month ago) is ‘legitimate’, while 40 per cent say it is not. Only 1 percent believe it will significantly improve the economy.

In the South West, 42 percent believe the new Prime Minister came to office through “illegitimate” means. In the East Midlands, only one in five (21 per cent) think they have the right to seize power.

The Survation poll found 51 per cent of people across the country believe Mr Burnham should call an election this year, while 31 per cent do not. The remaining 18 percent said they did not know.

He has little support outside the Manchester fiefdom and London, and only four UK territories back his bid to oust Sir Keir.

Amid fears that the Makerfield MP will pile taxes on middle-class Southerners to fund his plans, four in ten say they do not believe he will govern in the interests of the country as a whole.

Mr Burnham will become Prime Minister today following the extraordinary coup against Sir Keir, just two years after Labour’s overwhelming majority at the election. Addressing the nation at lunch, Mr Burnham will pledge to ‘give Britain more breathing room’ amid the cost of living crisis, with plans to save on energy bills and cut bus fares expected to be announced in the coming days.

As Britain prepares for its seventh leader in a turbulent decade:

• While Rachel Reeves is set to be demoted from the Treasury, other Starmer loyalists in the Cabinet are also awaiting sacking;
• The new Prime Minister has begun to undo Sir Keir’s legacy by abandoning controversial plans for digital ID cards and signaling a less hostile approach to North Sea oil;
• Kemi Badenoch warns new Prime Minister to ignore further tax rises and focus on cutting the aid bill;
• Mr Burnham’s deputy, Lucy Powell, defended plans to more than double foreign aid at a cost of £11bn a year;
• Mr Burnham has faced a growing backlash from the Left over his plans to appoint Shabana Mahmood as Chancellor to replace old favorite Ed Miliband.

Mr Burnham has the weakest authority of any modern Prime Minister. The Allies organized a Labor ‘coronation’, which meant he did not have to make his plans for the country.

He did not stand by Labour’s manifesto at the election and campaigned for the seat of Makerfield on the issue of changing the party. The 25,000 votes he won in the by-election represents just 0.05 percent of the electorate, causing him to be dubbed the ‘unauthorised messiah’.

Former Conservative Cabinet minister Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg said the new Prime Minister would face a public backlash if he did not call an election.

‘How can it continue without authority?’ he said. ‘No one voted for him. ‘We need to move to a situation where a new leader has to call a general election.’

But Mr Burnham will use his speech on the steps of Number 10 today to oppose an early election. He will say he is “absolutely conscious” that he is the latest in a line of surprising leaders over the last decade.

And he will argue that Britain now needs ‘more stable and responsible politics’ and that the country needs a period of ‘reflection and analysis’ in which it will be ‘honest about the challenges it faces’.

Andy Burnham pictured after being officially confirmed as Labor’s new leader

Sir Keir Starmer will resign as Prime Minister this afternoon after two years in power

Mr Burnham promised last week that he would run every part of the country. But his Labor ally West Yorkshire mayor Tracy Brabin said yesterday his agenda was to ‘take power from the South’.

The Daily Mail poll reveals Mr Burnham’s dismay at his decision to impose his so-called ‘Manchesterism’ politics on the rest of the country.

The poll found more than one in three Britons (35 per cent) thought the new Prime Minister’s sudden rise to power was illegitimate; That’s slightly more than the 34 percent who believe he has the right to hold office.

Outside the capital and the North West, only voters in the East of England and Northern Ireland believe Burnham’s coronation was legitimate. Damian Lyons Lowe, CEO of Survation, said that he ranked 10th as a ‘Prime Minister who divides the country’.

He added: ‘His challenge is to translate an unusually strong regional platform into comparable support at the national level, with half the country saying he should call a snap general election.’

The survey was conducted last week, with 2,060 adults participating. It also shows that victory in the by-election called by Nigel Farage is far from guaranteed.

When asked who they would vote for if they lived in Clacton, 34 per cent chose the Reform leader while 25 per cent chose the reform candidate, Count Binface.