Tuesday briefing: How might Andy Burnham bring his Makerfield magic to Westminster?

In depth: Burnham ‘has to be very, very careful the sort of messages he sends’

Andy Burnham is Labour’s newest MP – and maybe also be the UK’s next prime minister. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Just after 9.30am yesterday, Keir Starmer stood before staff and supporters on Downing Street and confirmed that, after a weekend of intense pressure from Labour MPs and cabinet ministers, he had offered his resignation to King Charles.

There was bitter irony that the section of his brief resignation speech he must most have wanted his critics across the country to hear, where he set out his achievements in office, was almost drowned out by the EU anthem Ode to Joy, blasting from the notoriousanti-Brexit campaigner Steve Bray’s massive speaker beyond the Downing Street gates.

While Starmer’s remaining allies spoke of his sense of profound unfairness at being booted out by a mayor with only a byelection mandate, he offered a dignified public face, saying he would do “everything I can” to ensure an orderly handover and offering his successor “my full and unequivocal support”.

As he made his final thanks to his “beautiful children” and “fantastic wife Vic”, Starmer came close to tears. It was a reminder that politicians are not characters in a soap opera, but real people, however flawed, who still have to go home and tell the dog to get off the sofa for the umpteenth time and sit with all of this noise.

The merciless spotlight then moved on to Burnham, who was flexing his selfie arm in Westminster Hall with over 200 Labour MPs who had assembled to greet the new MP for Makerfield after he was officially sworn in.

(I do find it boggling that Burnham and Streeting both announced their intentions variously to stand and not to stand for Labour leadership on X, considering rising concerns about how that platform has amplified misinformation, including about the current government.)

With a Burnham coronation now most likely, he has just under a month to pick his cabinet and confirm his policy priorities.

The economy and cost of living

During the Makerfield campaign, we heard ambitious long-term plans from Burnham to bring water and energy into public control, and radically overhaul the property tax and social care systems, alongside more immediate cost-of-living interventions on rent and energy levies.

But there’s a big difference between spitballing on the stump and navigating the Treasury’s tight fiscal rules – which he’s already signed up to.

“He has limited room for manoeuvre realistically,” says Heather Stewart, our economics editor, noting that the UK government is due to borrow £250bn this year, inflated by the long tail of bank bailouts and Covid. Heather thinks he has some wriggle room, “but it means he has to be very, very careful the sort of messages he sends”.

“It’s one thing for the markets to lend you money because you want to do a long-term project with long-term returns,” she says. “It’s another for the market to think that you can’t control your day-to-day spending and they’re lending you money that’s going straight out the door for benefits.”

During the campaign, Burnham was pressed repeatedly on previous remarks that politicians were “in hock” to the bond markets, saying they had been misinterpreted by his opponents and that his argument was about politicians retaking control of fiscal levers.

And while his Makerfield win failed to prompt the bond market panic that Rachel Reeves’s backers had warned of, as Heather sets out in her column this week, she believes Burnham would be wise to set clear expectations about tax and spend, and be upfront about the fact that not everyone can be a winner. During the campaign he claimed he was “not squeamish” about reducing welfare spending to fund defence.

But there are options for tax increases, she says, “that don’t step on the live wire of Labour’s manifesto pledges” – capital gains tax again, for example, a bank tax or increasing the tax on high-value homes, due to come into force in 2028. “Announcing a wealth tax would be a powerful symbol of intent, too, though the practicalities are challenging”.

Europe and the world

Foreign policy is widely acknowledged as an area in which Burnham is inexperienced and one of his first challenges in office is likely to be a reset summit with the EU on 22 July.

The UK’s relationship with Europe has “immeasurably improved” since the Tories left government, our Europe correspondent, Jon Henley, tells me on a video chat from Paris. Glowing tributes from figures like Canadian premier, Mark Carney, who said yesterday “the world is safer and allies are more united” because of Starmer’s efforts, are testament to the international respect he earned for his leadership on Ukraine, managing the vicissitudes of US president Donald Trump.

But there remains a degree of frustration among EU countries, Jon adds that for all of Starmer’s warm words about closer ties, “there are the famous red lines in Labour’s manifesto” on the single market, customs union and free movement, which Burnham will be boxed in by, too.

Burnham was accused of reversing his position in favour of rejoining the EU, as he campaigned in Leave-voting Makerfield. He later clarified that, while he respects the result of the Brexit referendum, “I’d like to see us rejoin in my lifetime.”

“The problem is there’s very little Burnham can do to improve relationships with Europe that doesn’t involve a major about-turn on those red lines,” says Jon.

The north and devolution

In his victory speech in the wee hours of Friday morning, Burnham said the people of Makerfield had “voted for more power for the north and everywhere forgotten by Westminster”.

“We’ve heard all this before with Boris Johnson and levelling up,” our northern correspondent, Hannah Al-Othman, tells me when I catch her driving through Northumberland, “and the consensus here is that those areas have further declined. But with Burnham it does feel more authentic.”

She reminds me that Burnham lives in the Leigh area, next to the constituency he’s been elected to represent and a similar sort of place. “There is a sense that he’s lived it and he knows what its issues are.”

With growing numbers of regional leaders wielding different levels of power, Hannah wonders whether Burnham might effect some standardisation, devolving further responsibilities. “He has strong relationships with the other regional mayors. I imagine they’ll have his ear and will be holding him to account.”

Telling Labour’s ‘story’

A perennial criticism of Starmer was that he was too much the technocrat, unable to draw together the threads of incremental progress into a narrative powerful enough to convince a public whose trust had been eroded by decades of austerity, stagnation and broken promises.

We know Burnham’s story so far: it’s called Manchesterism, and it means a more interventionist approach to the economy, bringing essential assets such as transport, water and energy into greater public control, a closer partnership between the state and business to spread the proceeds of wealth, and a major expansion of devolution.

That’s the ambition, and what Labour MPs are excited about this morning. But how realistic are they, given Burnham’s constraint by manifesto commitments and the economy?

Much will depend on who Burnham picks as his chancellor. A briefing war has already broken out between advocates for Streeting and those close to Ed Miliband.

Senior political correspondent Peter Walker, who was on Downing Street to watch Starmer at the podium, recalls Burnham’s campaign launch in Makerfield: “The message very much was, ‘If I become PM, I can’t really go beyond what the manifesto said because I haven’t got a mandate to do that.’ And thesheer state of public finances means there’s not much he can do, unless he wanted to significantly change taxation, which he said he’s not going to do.”

And that, says Peter, leaves a problem many Labour MPs fear: “Is Burnham just going to be Starmer with a slightly more human presentation style?”

What else we’ve been reading

Anita Roy searched for a suitable place to deposit her spraint as she got into the mindset of an otter. Photograph: Jim Wileman/The Guardian

• Patrick Barkham has written an extraordinary piece about volunteers in Somerset who were trained to experience the world as otters, salmon and other native wildlife in a bid to understand the risks of human-dominated landscapes. Patrick
• Guardian correspondents revisited Brexit bellwether constituencies 10 years on for this cracking read, which I enjoyed in no small part because I remember the original Scottish commission. Libby
• I loved reading about how Laura Evans set herself a target of dead lifting 100kg and changed her relationship with her body in the process. Patrick

World Cup 2026

Argentina’s Lionel Messi is now two goals clear of Miroslav Klose in the all-time World Cup goal standings. Photograph: Tullio Puglia/FIFA/Getty Images

On the pitch

Argentina 2-0 Austria | Lionel Messi has become the leading goalscorer in World Cup history after scoring in Argentina’s group game against Austria.

France 3-0 Iraq| Kylian Mbappé scored twice and Ousmane Dembélé added another as France cruised to a win over Iraq that was delayed for two hours at half-time.

And the rest | Erling Haaland scored twice as Norway battled to a 3-2 win over Senegal, while Algeria beat Jordan 2-1, ​keeping alive their hopes of reaching the World Cup ⁠knockout rounds.

Off the pitch

Mexico | Merlin, the pet duck in a mini Mexico shirt who has ⁠become a viral sensation and an unofficial mascot of the World Cup, waddled onto the stage of the president’s morning press conference.

Sportswashing | This week’s edition of our Hotspot newsletter looks at how Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, embedded itself in the World Cup.

Say cheese| Jonny Weeks has produced a great behind-the-scenes photo essay from the World Cup’s official portraits.

Today’s fixtures

Portugal v Uzbekistan, 6pm BST on ITV

England v Ghana, 9pm BST on BBC

Panama v Croatia, 12am BST on BBC

Colombia v DR Congo, 3am on ITV

The front pages

Photograph: The Guardian

“Starmer bows out”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while the Times’ is “Burnham angles for power”, and the Telegraph’s take is “Burnham set for coronation”. The i Paper writes “Prime minister in three weeks: Burnham arrives for coronation”, and the FT leads with “Starmer’s exit clears way for Burnham”.

The Mail calls the potential PM “‘Messiah’ without a mandate”, and the Mirror, alongside a picture of Starmer, writes “Out of time”. The Sun says “He thinks it’s all over … and it definitely is for Starmer”. Metro has “Keir’s tears … Andy’s crown”. And lastly, the Express pleads “Give us a proper Brexit”.

Today in Focus: The Latest

Photograph: The Guardian

Starmer resigns: who will replace him and when?

Keir Starmer has announced he is standing down as prime minister after days of intense pressure from Labour MPs, including cabinet ministers, following Andy Burnham’s byelection victory in Makerfield.

Wes Streeting has ruled himself out of the running, so will it be a coronation for the ‘king of the north’ or could another candidate emerge? Lucy Hough speaks to senior political correspondent Peter Walker – watch the full episode on YouTube here.

Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings

Illustration: Ben Jennings/The Guardian

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

Shereener Browne set up the new Windrush Prize for British Caribbean Playwrights in memory of her father, Myron Brown. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

Compensation paid to a deceased Windrush victim has been transformed into the £10,000 Windrush prize, for British Caribbean playwrights over 18. “I wanted something positive to come out of it,” says founder Shereener Browne, the artistic director of Orísun Productions, who set up the prize in memory of her late father, Myron Brown.

Aiming to support underrepresented British Caribbeans in theatre, the scheme will also see the winning play staged at London’s Arcola theatre and published by Methuen Drama.

Through the prize, Browne hopes to establish a pathway for British Caribbeans theatre makers. More broadly, Orísun Productions has set out to support young writing talent through workshops, seminars and networking events. “There isn’t just one British Caribbean experience,” she says, a narrative she hopes to the scheme will help to change.

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