I Ran Communications For No 10 – Burnham Needs Shock And Awe To Succeed

Andy Burnham’s coronation has handed Labour the golden opportunity of a second chance at a first impression. He should seize it with the same urgency Tony Blair and Gordon Brown showed in 1997, flooding the news agenda with a shock-and-awe blitz of defining announcements.

Keir Starmer’s first weeks in office were dominated by rows about free suits, specs and Taylor Swift tickets. The controversies torpedoed his promise to do politics differently in the eyes of the public. The only story Keir’s new Government produced to knock the rows off the front pages was the decision to slash winter fuel payments for pensioners which, as he and his wife Vic pack their bags in No 10, is still coming up on doorsteps and in focus groups.

On being crowned leader, Andy promised the biggest political change in 40 years. He needs to show he has both the ideas and the plan to deliver it from day one. Ideally, that includes a signature policy that tackles the public’s number one issue, the cost of living crisis, that cuts through as much as winter fuel.

Renewed drilling in the North Sea is one area where Andy could signal a break with the Starmer era while boosting jobs, growth and tax revenues. It is backed by the trade unions and supports his promise of reindustrialisation. Using the additional revenue to fund public services or help with fuel costs would also neatly encapsulate his promise of business-friendly socialism.

It would also have the advantage of triggering a row, which helps to get the public sitting up and paying attention. Andy has insisted he has a plan after being accused by opponents of coasting into Downing Street without setting out his policy stall.

In fact, he has been pretty upfront about his intentions. We arguably have a better idea of what he will do than we did when Keir won a landslide election victory with an ill-defined promise of change. The details may not yet have been announced. Much of the programme is already there. Greater public control of water. More council housing. Infrastructure investment beyond London. A Defence Investment Plan. A renewed focus on vocational education. And, driven by his father’s experience with Alzheimer’s, a determination finally to confront the social care crisis.

Andy has also been candid about the prospect of taxes rising, while insisting he will respect the Labour Party’s manifesto red lines around income tax, VAT and employee national insurance. Who loses from tax changes can help to define him and his government as much as who benefits. These plans alone should allow for a barrage of announcements next week.

The incoming prime minister has built bridges with Labour MPs by condemning Keir’s stance on Gaza and rebranding the whips’ office as an HR department. He needs to move just as swiftly and decisively to mend fences with voters. Andy also needs to paint a sharper picture of what it all adds up to – the shining city on the hill he wants to build for Britain.

Keir never believed in the vision thing. But that meant the improvements the Government delivered, left to stand alone, looked incremental rather than part of a cohesive plan. Andy’s promises of Whitehall reform and devolution may set the pulses of policy wonks, civil servants and town hall officials racing but they mean little to voters.

It is talking about the abattoir, if you like, rather than the burger.

And being “unashamed Labour” risks alienating the 99.5 per cent of Britons who are not party members. The public needs to hear what his government is going to deliver and why, not just how. Andy only became Labour leader this afternoon, but time is already short.

He may have until 2029 to call an election, but he has only weeks to define himself. Labour’s new leader has been given a second chance at a first impression. He must act fast or squander it.

James Lyons is a former director of strategic communications at 10 Downing Street, and Senior Partner at Penta Group consultancy.