Labour must move quickly to replace Starmer with Burnham and give the country hope

It was obvious for months before the Scottish, Welsh and English council elections that Labour was going to do badly and that Keir Starmer would have to resign as a result. It has been equally clear that, on finding a seat in the House of Commons, Andy Burnham would be the person to replace him.

So the ridiculous idea that Starmer could stumble on for weeks or even months as a lame duck Prime Minister in order to allow Labour to go through a performative process of selecting a new leader risks getting the new Burnham government off to the worst of starts.

Starmer won the 2024 general election on the promise of change. Instead, he squandered a massive majority in the Commons by making repeated mistakes – resulting in embarrassing climbdowns in the face of backbench rebellions and public pressure – and failing to act with the necessary speed and decisiveness.

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Andy Burnham is obviously going to be the next Prime Minister and he needs to get to work as soon as possible (Picture: Christopher Furlong) | Getty Images

Seven Prime Ministers in ten years

If Labour cannot change its leader – a simple task which could, at least theoretically, be achieved today – without weeks of pointless navel-gazing, what hope is there for the country that they will finally deliver the promised change?

Burnham will be the UK’s seventh Prime Minister in ten years. While this is largely a consequence of the chaos under the Conservatives, if the trend continues, the amount of time spent choosing new leaders will really start to add up, while also fuelling concerns that the UK is becoming overly volatile and potentially even ungovernable. This is no way to run a country.

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What Britain needs now is the certainty and stability offered by a functioning government and that means Burnham needs to move quickly to take power and Labour MPs need to help him do so. A ‘coronation’ may be democratically embarrassing, but they simply need to live with that and the criticism it will bring.

While Burnham needs to be a man in a hurry, he must also realise the dangers of being overly hasty in his efforts to make an impact on people’s living standards and, by extension, Labour’s poor standing in the polls. He will be under pressure from Labour left-wingers to adopt a reckless fiscal attitude in order to pay for extravagant public spending.

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UK’s worrying national debt

But, with the national debt at nearly £3 trillion, no one should be in any doubt that Burnham and his Chancellor must retain the confidence of the markets. Without it, the cost of the government’s debt repayments would soar, leaving the country with less money and heading towards a financial crisis.

He should be trying to reduce the national debt, not increase it, and any extra spending should be achieved not through higher borrowing or taxes but by cuts in other areas or greater efficiencies.

He could also look for ways to help, for example, farmers and small businesses – two groups that suffered under Starmer – without necessarily spending a lot of money as a signal of good intent. Small steps in the right direction could start to lift the national mood and a growing sense of confidence can be infectious.

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But all this can only start once Burnham – a relative rarity as a politician with a positive popularity rating – is in 10 Downing Street. Delay will only lead to more uncertainty and drift, and an even greater sense among voters that mainstream democratic parties have lost the ability to make their lives better.

The UK Government’s financial position and the weight of expectation mean Burnham will be in a difficult position. The sooner he gets to work on finding a way out of it and offering fresh hope to a troubled nation, the better.