The new Messiah will need an economic miracle or two to solve Scotland’s problems

Andy Burnham is the UK’s 5th PM since 2020

Praise be - our newest Messiah has been anointed, as Andy Burnham became the Labour Party’s latest chosen one to fix both the fractured political group and the wider problems of an ailing, cash-strapped and bitterly divided UK.

The man himself would be the first to say he’s not a miracle worker of course, but then only the true Messiah denies his divinity.

And he has hit the ground running, pledging to run a ‘cost of living’ government and immediately scrapping VAT on household electricity bills, a move which should save the average family around £45 a year.

A small saving for sure, and even smaller when put against the rise in energy costs, the rise in food costs and the rise in the cost of, well, everything else.

Even the longest journey starts somewhere though, and with this small step Burnham has signalled his intent to make giant leaps in improving life in the UK.

He has already gently rebuffed our First Minister’s immediate call for an independence referendum, and writing in The Scotsman earlier this month Mr Burnham said he would bring to Scotland the approach he adopted as Mayor of Greater Manchester.

So what will "Burnhamonics" mean for Scotland? Burnham’s strategy in Manchester was to shift out economic decision making so it wasn’t centralised, to rebuild infrastructure, which revitalised local transport, to push the green energy transition to create jobs, and to prioritise investment in economically deprived areas.

Now he is PM Burnham will surely have the Labour general election promise to cut household energy bills by £300 by 2030 in his sights, and has said he wants to "bring essentials under public control" to make them more affordable.

He wants to let people earn more before they start paying tax - although accepted that would be “difficult” and suggested he may in fact be looking for “a little bit more” in tax from people.

And if he wants to reform social care, build more houses and tackle public transport fares he’s going to need money from somewhere.

So far he has talked a good game, but talk is cheap, action is expensive and the financial situation across the UK is, to put it mildly, bleak.

Burnham is the fifth UK Prime Minister since 2020, and the ninth since the turn of the millennium. In the last decade we’ve had eight chancellors, nine foreign secretaries and ten education secretaries.

For all their political differences, each and every one of them pledged on day one to make the country a better place. And it would seem pretty clear that they all failed.

Burnham has spoken about giving hope to the country, just as his predecessor Sir Keir Starmer did when he took over as Labour leader in 2020.

The then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to tackle the economic crisis when he took over from Liz Truss, who just 49 days earlier had vowed to “deliver a bold plan to cut taxes and grow our economy” but instead spent her short tenure pouring jet fuel on the economic fire.

Even going back to the heady days when Governments endured for more than one term, instead of today’s whiplash politics where making it through a month is a job well done, there was still little stock in claims from PMs, either in waiting or in office.

When David Cameron took over as Conservative leader in 2005, he insisted “We won’t play politics with the long-term future of this country.” He went on to approve the bitterly divisive Scottish Independence referendum AND the catastrophic Brexit referendum.

Outgoing PM Sir Keir Starmer, meanwhile, enjoyed his last few weeks in office with the sort of relaxed charm that might have kept him in the job, although it remains to be seen what his parting gift - a pledge of £300 million to the Ukraine - will do to his successor’s budget plans.

Sir Keir will now get an average MP salary of over £95,000 to represent his constituency, and has said he will be “keeping his mouth shut” under his successor, instead spending "more time on the most important job" of being "the best husband" and "best dad". Which I’m sure the good people of Holborn and St Pancras will totally understand.

He leaves the other most important job in the country having learned the difficult truth - the problems Scotland and the UK currently face are vast, complex and in many cases entirely outwith the control of government.

Unless Andy Burnham’s economic strategy is going to work miracles with rising global food prices, rising global energy prices and rising global instability he is likely to find it nigh impossible to tackle the rising costs and falling standards of living on his own doorstep.

And if he tells you otherwise then you’ll know he’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.