Burnham Can Prove His Pm Credentials By Standing Up To Musk

Andy Burnham’s path to power is a triple obstacle race. First, as a prerequisite, he has to persuade the recently Reform-voting electorate to back him and Labour in the Makerfield by-election.

If he gets over that fence on 18 June, he will next have to rally the support of MPs from Labour’s left who have been straining to force out Sir Keir Starmer. If the current Prime Minister sticks by his threat to force a contest, Burnham will also have to win over Labour activists and trade unions as well.

When and if Burham gets through all that, his real job will only just be beginning. He will face the challenge of leading the nation and convincing voters across the spectrum that he is the credible prime minister that they have decided Starmer is not – and one worthy of leading Labour to re-election.

Not surprisingly, Burnham is proceeding with caution at this early stage of his long climb. He is making few firm policy commitments. A crowd pleaser on the first leg may prove a hostage to fortune later on. What appeals to a hard-pressed homeowner in Wigan may not tickle the fancy of a flat-hopping special advisor from Hackney.

There is one policy area ripe for seizing which could be a universal crowd pleaser. Burnham should put the boot into Donald Trump and his motley crew of sycophants – Elon Musk, JD Vance, Pete Hegseth and the rest – for their repeated interventions into British politics, and their distortions of what is going on in this country.

Burnham is not nicknamed “the charming chameleon” idly. “Andy” likes to be liked. He is a veteran politician who served Labour leaders as varied as Blair, Brown, Miliband and Corbyn in his suit and tie before reinventing himself in a black T-shirt as a professional Northerner and champion of Manchester, in spite of being a lifelong supporter of Everton FC and growing up on Merseyside.

A golden attraction of talking tough to the marauders from Magaland is that it is low risk. In opinion polls in this country a clear majority of both Remain and Leave voters, who overlap with today’s Reform and Restore supporters, disapprove of Trump. That is why Farage has gone shy over his ties to Trump.

On the day of the Jan 6 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol, Burnham posted: “Any UK politician who gave Trump the time of day should be ashamed right now.” Starmer’s subsequent sucking-up to “Donald”, deploying state visits and the King, might have been worth trying at the time but it has not paid off. In hindsight, the Prime Minister just looks weak.

Today, Britain’s terms of trade with the US are not much better than anybody else’s. Official US National Security Strategy is that Washington should support ultra nationalist parties of the right to resist “civilisational erasure” here. Meanwhile, Elon Musk’s endorsements have supercharged Restore UK’s presence on X and helped foment street protests in Northern Ireland.

Burnham should state plainly the noxious influence Musk is having on Britain. Next to nobody in this country likes Musk, who is clearly promoting unrest while also promoting his tech business with exaggerated and untrue posts about the stabbing in Belfast.

The beauty of openly taking on the contemptuous and dismissive interference by the Trump regime and Musk is that it chimes with British internationalists and nationalists alike, and that includes lots of people who have turned to Reform and Restore in despair. Burnham has been very careful never to criticise people for voting reform. He has the opportunity to condemn the provocative alien extremism, while still addressing their concerns on both social unrest and the baleful influence of tech – which are both mainstream worries on the current political agenda.

While not quite committing to specifics, Burnham is so far presenting himself as a man of his word. Without mentioning Starmer, this week he put the knife into politicians who support a cause in government but do nothing about it when in power.

“I stuck by the Hillsborough families. I’ll stick by the Waspi women because they deserve some recompense for the unfairness,” he promised.

He may come to regret that gesture to the Waspi women, carrying as it does a potential £10bn price tag. Standing up to American interference, by contrast, would be consistent with Burnham’s past commitments, and be cost-free.

He can point out with justification that his dim view of Trump goes back to 2016 when they were both running for office for the first time, Burnham as Mayor of Greater Manchester and Trump for President. He ruled out any meeting with Trump as “a matter of principle” over Trump’s reposting of far-right videos.

Burnham also carefully exonerated potential Trump supporters, arguing they were expressing a “cry for change” against “a cosy political culture”, that is still one of the unifying themes of his campaign today. He has consistently argued that the “right will fill the streets with hate” unless “the left” listens to voters concerned.

And in taking on the offensive against the interference and ethno-racist arguments of Musk and the like, Burnham could also grasp the opportunity to commit to tougher but fairer policies on crime and immigration. In the process, he would deprive the alternative right of one of its key arguments against Labour.

Burnham is proud of his close relationship with Greater Manchester police as mayor, to call firmly for law and order on the streets of the UK. One surprise of the Makerfield contest has been Burnham’s closeness to Shabana Mahmood, the hardline Home Secretary who many on Labour’s soft left would like to sack.

Remember “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime?” Burnham spent his formative years as a Blairite, while a human rights lawyer called Keir Starmer was resisting New Labour centrism.

Like Thatcher before him, Tony Blair led the country by challenging some of his party’s reflex assumptions. In a week’s time, Burnham may find himself with the opportunity to do the same.

The majority here in the UK do not like rioters, racism or being manipulated by American big tech. Burnham speaking up would not be a Love Actually moment – there is still so much of value in the United States. But it would be a chance to show that he is not just another British politician.

It would be a true test of whether he is a strong leader, capable of making a long overdue and proud rallying call against a corrupt, bullying and failing regime of billionaires which is trashing its allies as surely as its bulldozers have trashed the White House.