Prime Ministers in the modern era have invariably tried to prove that they are men of the people. It’s one reason why the likes of Tony Blair, Liz Truss and now Andy Burnham have used the familiar form of their Christian name in the way Harry Macmillan or Dave Lloyd George never did. But what marks out Andy Burnham as novel is that he doesn’t merely flaunt his common touch as part of a broader, cynical strategy to garner electoral support. His earthly demeanour – albeit laboured – actually seems to convey authenticity. He really does want to be liked.
When Tony Blair appeared on popular television shows such as Des O’Connor Tonight, where his accent opportunely shifted to a cringeworthy glottal-stopping Estuary English, most of us just groaned, so accustomed had we become to the wily ways of this superficial man, a phoney whose time in power is remembered today for introducing ‘spin’ to the political lexicon. By comparison, when Andy Burnham appeared on Channel 4’s Gogglebox on Friday, you had a feeling that it wasn’t entirely a charade.
What marks out Andy Burnham as novel is that he doesn’t merely flaunt his common touch as part of a broader, cynical strategy to garner electoral support
Sure, in his appearance with his ‘good friend Steve’ – that’s to say, Steve Rotheram, the metro mayor of Liverpool – he did overegg the demotic conviviality, sitting on a sofa in front of a coffee table decked with beer, pork scratchings and crisps, watching such popular fare as Strictly Come Dancing, The Celebrity Traitors and Only Connect. He lamented conspicuously how he didn’t know the answers to questions posed in the latter show, and ‘casually’ mentioned that he was no good at cryptic crosswords. As Carol Midgley of the Times concluded, it was a performance designed to convey the message: ‘Look at me. I’m as bang average at Only Connect as you are! I’m reliable, a man of the people!’
While the performance was embellished, few could doubt its sincerity or even essential truthfulness. We can easily believe that he is no good at a famously difficult BBC2 quiz show, and cryptic crosswords are the preserve of an elite. No-one would be surprised to discover that he really does watch telly while eating crisps and drinking beer. One can’t but help conclude that he’s fond of appearing on television and making TikTok videos because, politics aside, he actually really is, as Tony Blair once attempted to convince us, ‘a pretty straight sort of guy’ who just seeks affection.
Burnham not only has his eye on the TikTok generation – in a strange, anachronistic way he possesses the mindset of the TikTok generation. He similarly wants to be ‘liked’ by strangers. That’s why his manner defaults to chummy and cloying, his policies are vague, why his speeches are light on specifics. He’s a classic people-pleaser who fears unpopularity. While his conviction-free pragmatism served him well as Mayor of Greater Manchester, that depthlessness, in the end, might prove his undoing.
The problem with people-pleasers is that they don’t do what their intellect tells them is right, or what is objectively beneficial and good, but rather what makes them feel popular and happy. Unfortunately, this inevitably results in short-term fixes rather than long-term solutions. This is why, when Burnham does show resolve in policy, he opts to tinker with the small stuff, such as cracking down on commuters who play loud music, or proposing that spectators at football games be allowed to drink alcohol in view of the pitch – the former suggestion has been widely derided as unworkable or pointless, given that many transport providers already have the powers to deal with such anti-social types, while he has already backtracked on the unexpectedly unpopular second proposal.
Such timidity and prevarication may prove his demise because this country has grave, long-term problems in need of immediate remedy, notably government borrowing costs, the rocketing welfare bill and the fall-out from astronomical levels of immigration in recent years. They will all need addressing before this country goes bankrupt, or like France, edges closer towards civil war. In order to do this, Burnham will have to succeed where his predecessor failed, and persuade or defeat his economically illiterate and culturally internationalist backbenchers.
But as yet, beyond giving the green light for drilling in one solitary North Sea gas field, he hasn’t displayed the willingness to confront this country’s powerful cohort of leftists in thrall to fashionable causes.
An erstwhile ally, Andy Haldane, a former chief economist at the Bank of England, has already mocked him for presiding over ‘a socialist government with better TikTok videos’. In the Times on Saturday, Haldane also warned that Burnham cannot ‘vibe-code’ his way to growth.
That assessment is spot on. Good vibes won’t suffice. A good prime minister must be firm and decisive. He must also have, as the title of a self-help bestseller puts it, the courage to be disliked.
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