Is That It?

A £45 unfunded VAT cut and an end to rough sleeping on an unspecified date is all our PM can come up with in 48 hours.

After all the build-up, a non-contest and a dull handover, the Mancunian Messiah has started a brave new chapter in British politics.

Speaking haltingly, without notes or a lectern, he mouthed the usual platitudes, blamed the 1980s and pledged new politics, a new economic model and a ten-year plan to be announced in the autumn. In the Soviet Union, Stakhanovism worked in five-year plans; clearly t’King of t’North fears the electoral cycle or has ignored the reality that he has fewer than three years, maximum, before he faces the people. Of course, the Soviet Union didn’t do elections; perhaps that’s what Andy means by “new politics”.

In the speech he announced that he would “…issue my first instruction: to end rough sleeping in our country”. A day later, there is no detail on that yet, which is unsurprising as it’s a very complex issue that falls between the cracks of health, welfare, employment and housing. Numbers are hard to come by; on a single night there may be over 4,500 rough sleepers, with perhaps 15,000 people sleeping rough some (but not all) nights of a year. Around 5% are veterans, and it’s a growing problem in the north. Our Andy, perhaps wisely, didn’t give a timeframe for achieving this laudable objective.

Later he announced abolishing VAT on domestic electricity in October. That would save the average household about £45 pounds a year, which is part of the Manchester Messiah’s plan to give families some economic “breathing room”, in his words. The ONS tells me that the median household disposable income after housing costs is £34,500 (although that varies massively by area). £45, therefore, buys the median family just 12 hours, although due to the October start this financial year it will be just 6 hours. That’s no game-changer.

Having announced that this precious six hours’ grace would be funded by cancelling digital ID cards, it turned out that digital ID cards were to be funded from departmental savings; that is, there is no cash. Burnham was a minister in Blair’s government – which was rather better at producing soundbites than sound policy. Outside Number 10 t’King of t’North uttered “I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you. And I want to be honest with you. We have not been good enough, and we need to be better.” That’s almost as brazen as Blair’s “hand of history” soundbite as the Troubles were ending (thanks largely to the work of John Major’s government, by the way.)

Burnham may seem a Blairite, but he says he was inspired by Neil Kinnock. He certainly is advocating a big state, with government spending leading the quest for growth. He’s presumably aware that Kinnock, a sincere socialist and natural communicator, made the Labour Party (almost) electable by purging it of the hard left and the Militant Tendency of (northerner) Derek Hatton. Something his intellectually hard-left predecessor, Michael Foot, baulked at. That failure contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s massive win and increased majority in 1983.

Kinnock lost the next election but had rebuilt the party and Thatcher’s majority was cut. Labour only got elected when Tony Blair stopped it being socialist, most notable by axing Clause 4”, which enshrined nationalisation in Labour thinking. Burnham was, or pretended to be, a Blairite at the time, hence his elevation. It’s far from clear that he knows his own mind or beliefs (in anything other than himself.) Given that his unopposed appointment has taken some time to orchestrate, one would have thought that the man who is now the Prime Minister might have thought about what he would do, what he believed in and why. From the infantile platitudes produced so far, it would appear that he hasn’t. No wonder he’s hiding from the media.

His cabinet is interesting, perhaps more in the Chinese sense than an intellectual one. John Healey as Chancellor was unexpected. Widely regarded as an honourable man and with experience in the Treasury under Gordon Brown, he’s probably credible. He’s already asking his cabinet colleagues to find cuts – sorry, savings – presumably to fund defence. Much will rest on whether he gets them. Don’t hold your breath.

Getting rid of the ghastly Lord Hermer is a plus. Whether Ellie Reeves KC, an employment lawyer representing Unite and other trade unions and a supporter of women facing maternity discrimination , is an improvement only time will tell. She’s a professional politician, married to another Labour MP. Wikipedia says she’s a supporter of Labour Friends of Israel – probably a very small society. She was made a Privy councillor in 2025 and appointed KC in January this year.

Sending Ed Miliband to the Foreign Office was, erm, original, but as nothing compared to appointing Wes Judas Streeting as Minister of Defence. He had said almost nothing about defence until he resigned as health secretary. He pontificated on the MOD a bit in June on LBC but the bottom line is he knows little about it – even if he knew that he would get that role, not be put back as secretary of state for health. He described leaving that position as an “emotional wrench” – no doubt the British soldiery is hoping Wes will cave into their pay demands as frequently as he did to junior doctors.

This is what is so strange but also so typical of the Westminster (and now Manchester) bubble; they can barely run a bath. The defenestration of Sir Keir has been planned for months and executed well. The GGC (Government Gaslighting Corporation, an organisation formerly known as the BBC – also largely based in Andy’s Manchester) helped with its absurd coverage of Our Andy’s progress on the West Coast Main Line, making it akin to the arrival of the Queen of Sheba. The GGC has also, so far, not laid into The Mancunian Messiah.

Yet he turned up without a plan. The GGC may let that slide, but the bond markets aren’t. Since Starmer resigned, 10-year gilt yields are up 0.3%; that’s an increase of £15 billion a year on the UK’s medium-term debt alone. Long term debt is also up. we’re already suffering due to Andy’s ambition.

Outside Downing Street Burnham promised to be “better”. Yet he had the temerity to take over a job running our country without, it seems, a clue as to what he was going to do. The country needs strong, numerate leadership to fix the economy and simultaneously deliver public service. What we have is a cheeky chappy, a clueless chancer, a cardboard cut-out and a complete charlatan.

The Mancunian Messiah has feet of clay and it’s beginning to show. Already.

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