Andy Burnham faces the worst case of Monday morning blues he’s had | Politics | News
Andy Burnham’s commitment to football is unquestionable but he may not be able to concentrate on the World Cup final. The next day he could face the worst Monday morning blues of his life.
Yes, he will be thrilled to move to Downing Street as prime minister; It is an experience that the Miliband brothers and their New Labor-era apparatchik friends have yet to achieve. But as he meets civil servants to brief them on the dangers facing the country, he may wonder why he is trying so hard to bring down Sir Keir Starmer.
Bloomberg puts it this way: “In his first six months in power, Burnham will be warned by senior public officials that he faces a worsening economy and rising interest rates and a possible oil price shock if the Iran war drags on.”
Ahh. While inflation forecasts have been revised upwards, the oil price is expected to reach $150 per barrel due to the Iran-US conflict.
In other words, the weekly store may become even more expensive, and paying the mortgage may become an even more formidable hardship under Mr. Burnham’s watch.
The prospect of even higher borrowing costs will trigger calls from Conservatives and Reformers for him to cut Britain’s aid bill; This is a surefire way to divide the Labor Party. The chancellor’s top priority will be to ensure the UK’s finances are sound.
The problem is that we are days away from the start of Burnham’s premiership and she still has not made her senior cabinet picks. Unless he keeps Rachel Reeves in office, he will have a chancellor who, like him, is struggling to find out the true state of the national finances and has no chance of coming up with a long-term plan.
This is a dangerous time. Public officials will have plenty of ideas on how to rationalize spending, but what is presented as a common-sense reform could lead to political disaster.
Consider Ms Reeves’s early decisions amid panic about a “black hole” on financial matters, including the end of universal winter fuel payments for pensioners, inheritance tax raids on farming families and a rise in National Insurance payments. Economists may argue about the need for such measures, but Starmer’s administration has been accused of crushing growth, destroying confidence and sowing panic among older generations.
Labour’s honeymoon was ruined and MPs soon decided Sir Keir could not lead them to the next election.
If Mr Burnham is to avoid a similar disaster, he and his chancellor need a plan to reassure Britons that the country is not heading towards ruin. It’s like a football manager facing the biggest test of his career and not yet being able to choose his team.
