‘If Andy Burnham is the answer, we need a new question’: Readers on Labour’s leadership dilemma

Iindependent Readers are divided over John Curtice’s assessment that Andy Burnham represents Labor’s best chance of keeping Nigel Farage out of Downing Street after Britain’s leading pollster warned it would not be a surprise to see a change in party leadership in 2026.

Many have argued that Burnham’s appeal lies in her role outside Westminster, and have warned that her popularity could wane if she returns to the forefront of national politics.

Commentators have highlighted the practical and political obstacles facing any leadership challenge, including the difficulty of Burnham re-entering parliament and the risks of destabilizing Labor as Reform UK continues to gain ground.

Others also defended Keir Starmer, highlighting that Labor had inherited a damaged economy, depleted public services after 14 years of Conservative rule and that expectations of a rapid recovery were unrealistic.

Starmer’s critics argued Burnham would be a more effective political operator, particularly in the north of England, but others doubted he represented a clear ideological departure from the current leadership.

There was widespread concern across our community about the long-term risk that Labor would lose support to the Greens on the left, with voter fragmentation and disillusionment ultimately benefiting Reformation UK.

Here’s what you need to say:

Burnham is unavailable

Burnham is unavailable. He is not a member of parliament. Even if he can find a safe seat (and voters may not take kindly to being used as a pawn in a political game), it will take weeks to hold a by-election, even longer to mount a leadership challenge, and he will then face the same challenges as Starmer, but with less experience in the top job.

I suspect he is popular precisely because he is a rival, and that would quickly disappear if he became Prime Minister. There is a climate of anti-politics at the moment where people tend to attack the incumbent government or the Prime Minister not because of who they are or what they have done, but simply because they are in power.

Tanaquil2

We need a new question

If the answer is Burnham, we need a new question. He was a rather incompetent government minister in the 2000s. I don’t remember him accomplishing anything significant. He somehow manages to seem both gentle and arrogant. I think Labor can do much better than this.

evil triplets

The best person to handle Trump

Burnham might be a better leader. But Starmer is still the best person to handle Trump and get the trade deals and investment we need. With the emergence of new technology, this problem will have a greater impact on our future than any other problem. Once that’s done, maybe we can put Burnham in the next election.

ajames

Popular in the North

Burnham is popular in the North and needs to be taken seriously, because the London government is not.

Much of the North seems foreign to southerners, especially the “true” North: Cumbria, County Durham and Northumberland.

Suney

Bleeding voters

Burnham, like Wes Streeting, is no further to the left than Starmer, and replacing Starmer with either of them, or anyone from Labor Together, would continue the bleeding of left-wing voters to the Green Party and, for the foreseeable future, the socialist Your Party.

By remaining loyal to the increasingly right-wing Labor leadership, the union leadership, including the TUC, risks losing the working class altogether and consigning the labor movement in its current form to the dustbin of history.

NotaWinstonin1984

What could Burnham do?

What could Burnham do that wasn’t already done? Admittedly, Starmer is not a fun guy with the charisma of Boris Johnson, but he has made good progress in many areas and the election will be decided by results. Labor won just 34 per cent of the popular vote, so it was in an impossible position in terms of popularity from the start, and a new leader isn’t going to change that.

If Farage gets into 10th place, it will depend on his billionaire backers and the naivety of those who believe those billionaires’ first priority is to lift the poor out of poverty.

frankie

Stay with Starmer

Labor should stick with Starmer at least until the May election. He performs well on the world stage, is better received in the media, and also seems like a decent guy. Labor has inherited a complete and utter mess and answers are not coming quickly. They made a mistake, but look at the alternatives! (Except the Lib Dems.)

If there is a successor, then there is one I am influenced by: John Healey.

TK62

A succession of leaders getting worse

Starmer is the elected leader; This is the Parliamentary Labor Party’s choice. Second guessing is all well and good, but do we want a succession of even worse leaders like the Conservative Party with Bozo? Stability is needed.

Labor has inherited the chaos of more than a decade of austerity and infighting within the party.

Red Dragon

One of the few attractive Labor politicians

He is certainly one of (currently very few) attractive Labor politicians, but I wonder how much of his past would be brought to the fore to damage his appeal.

And of course, he has a difficult journey to become a member of parliament. In fact, it works in Starmer’s favor for him to come out on top because very few Labor MPs will be willing to take that risk.

simplesimon

Burnham needs to be better at politics

A hypothetical Prime Minister Burnham need not be more inspiring than Starmer, just better at politics. Starmer lacks communication skills and the ability to keep his cabinet in order. The budget leaks were an egregious example of the latter.

Like all of us, he keeps making mistakes but never seems to elevate his game as a result.

The biggest obstacle to fixing this is that the cabinet ministers and MPs loyal to him are just as stubborn. In a leadership contest they would probably choose someone like Streeting or Shabana Mahmood.

Zandeman

Nightly fixes

The Conservatives had 14 years in power to crash the economy and destroy public services.

People have become so used to next day deliveries on Amazon that they seem to be under the impression that anything can be done overnight, and they believe that is why they have failed because Labor has failed to repair all the damage caused by the Conservative Party (including those who then jumped to Reform plc, the private company masquerading as a political party).

Actually

Some of the comments in this article have been edited for brevity and clarity.

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