Rosa Prince: Good luck, Andy Burnham. You'll need it

Keir Starmer has informed King Charles III of his intention to depart 10 Downing Street. By September, the UK will have its seventh prime minister in the span of a decade. It's all but certain now that the man taking the helm of the good ship Great Britain will be Andy Burnham.

There are many reasons Burnham may struggle to do much better than Starmer leading a country that, since the Brexit referendum a decade ago, has come to be described as almost ungovernable. Those problems have been examined in great detail in recent days. But it feels churlish to dwell on the impediments today. Why not focus on the many opportunities that, with a fair wind, mean Burnham could actually turn out to be a success?

First, there's the manner of his victory. Famously, the Labour Party finds it far more psychologically difficult to rid itself of a failing leader than do the rather more ruthless Conservatives (responsible for all but one of the personnel changes at No. 10 in the last decade). In acting decisively, Labour has shed a leader in Starmer who, perhaps unfairly, the public never took to, and by the end had come to loathe.

As was demonstrated time and again, in polls and at the ballot box, Starmer had lost the room electorally. Had he continued to cling on, voters were never going to return a Labour government in the general election that must come by 2029, no matter how many resets he ordered or fresh policies he unveiled.

And the reason that became the crucial question isn't just because Labour likes being in power, but because every opinion poll for the last year or more has shown us that, should the mainstream parties continue to falter, the chief beneficiary will be Reform UK, the right-wing, MAGA-style populist party led by Nigel Farage with its ugly tendency toward anti-immigrant, White-rights rabble rousing.

In what has become an existential battle across the West and beyond, between authoritarian hard-right populism and progressive democracy, Burnham achieved a small but vital victory on behalf of all those who care about decency last week. By beating Reform (and the even more extremist Restore Britain party) in the Makerfield special election that now returns him to office, Burnham showed that he's found the rare elixir: a personal following that isn't dependent on stirring up hatred, and the ability to beat the populists at their own game by speaking directly to the concerns of the economically disadvantaged.

To have that common touch transported to the heart of the UK government could be vital in the battle not of ideas but emotions that has become the challenge of our days.

And Burnham has a boldness that feels encouraging after years of dither and procrastination under Starmer. His journey back to Westminster has not been straightforward: It's highly unusual for a challenger to strike and win from outside the House of Commons. Yet Burnham made clear his belief that he would make a better fist of being prime minister than Starmer, and took decisive steps to get himself to a place where that - suddenly, shockingly - became first a possibility, then increasingly likely, until it now looks all but inevitable.

Fighting the special election in Makerfield, where Reform had won every council seat only two months ago in local and regional votes, was equally brave compared with the more straightforward alternative of trying to win a safer seat. But Burnham declared Makerfield perfect, because it tested the concept that he could take on Farage and win. Now, he's set to have the opportunity to prove it across the country.

When, as now seems likely, he becomes prime minister in September, Burnham will have a cabinet and party that is four-square behind him, and favorability ratings among the wider electorate most British politicians can only dream of. True, the global landscape he inherits is challenging and unpredictable. The country's economic woes are dire, and his choice of chancellor of the exchequer is fraught with risk as he tries to keep the bond market onside. Societally, Britain feels a fractured, often unhappy place. And politically, he will almost immediately be forced to take decisions that will upset people, including those who consider him a friend and champion and count on him to see the world their way. That will be hard for a man who likes to be loved, and has a tendency to change his mind when the going gets tough.

But Burnham is no neophyte. He's been in politics for decades, was a minister under Tony Blair, served in the Treasury during Gordon Brown's premiership and, as health secretary, ran the government's largest department, responsible for the bloated, beloved and always money-hungry National Health Service. He's been mayor of Britain's second city Manchester for almost a decade, and made a good job of it; the economic growth rate there is double the national average.

There's no doubt that Britain in 2026 is in a perilous place, but no one would seriously argue it faces worse challenges than those that confronted another smart Labour politician who'd already been around the block several times before becoming prime minister in 1945. Today, Clement Attlee is revered as Labour's most successful ever leader, creator of the welfare state and rebuilder of Britain after the nightmare of war.

Why shouldn't Burnham, like Attlee, take inspiration from adversity and go on to make a great success of his time as prime minister? For the sake of the country, and for all those who want Britain to remain a beacon of decency in a troubled world, we should wish him well.

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This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Rosa Prince is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering UK politics and policy. She was formerly an editor and writer at Politico and the Daily Telegraph, and is the author of "Comrade Corbyn" and "Theresa May: The Enigmatic Prime Minister."

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 12:23 PM.