Andy Burnham was once a fairly prosaic politician. He trod a familiar path: Oxbridge, Spad, then Parliament, followed by rapid promotion into the ministerial ranks. In that time, he fought two unsuccessful leadership elections: first as a defender of austerity, slightly to the Right of Ed Balls, and then as the voice of reason against the Corbynite insurgency. Today, he advocates for Universal Basic Income for the homeless. An old joke has resurfaced: “A Blairite, a Brownite and a Corbynite walk into a bar. ‘Hello, Mr Burnham,’ the bartender says.”

But adaptability is rarely a drawback for a skilled politician, and the putative King of the North has grown in stature in his role as Greater Manchester’s Mayor. He is the clear favourite to replace our struggling prime minister, despite lacking a Commons seat. And now he has delivered — via a New Statesman interview — his most complete statement of clear red water between himself and Keir Starmer yet.

“Manchesterism”, as Burnham defines it, would revolve around a “business-friendly socialism”. It would, he claims, be comfortable with markets and enterprise (just look at the skyline in the North West’s most dynamic metropolis if you don’t believe him). But essential services — water, energy, transport and housing — would be taken back into the hands of the state.

Whether that means municipal control, regional ownership, or outright nationalisation is left unsaid — a telling omission for a fledgling “Burnhamism” that vows to “roll back the 1980s” and wrest power from Whitehall’s jealous grip. How it’s paid for in an era of high interest rates and jittery gilt markets is another question. But the ambitious Mancunian-Scouser (typically, the Mayor claims both mantles) says ending the racket of outsourcing, disjointed and expensive private provision, as well as the constant papering over the cracks of market failure, is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

It’s a compelling vision, and not only for the Labour Party’s Left-liberal selectorate. Polling consistently shows that public ownership of the utilities and much else besides is popular. Combining this Left-populist approach on economics with a more conservative stance on crime and migration is the real, unrepresented electoral sweet spot of British politics. However, Burnham’s latent Europhilia and natural progressive instincts preclude such a strategy — for now. If and when his primary audience shifts from the Remain-heavy, socially liberal Labour membership to the country at large, nothing would be off the table for this most protean of politicians.

Yet the appeal of the vision lies in its clarity: a class-focused “nostalgic futurism”, says the Statesman. It harks back to post-war social democracy while offering a potential way out of our contemporary polycrisis. This approach contrasts with the vapid, empty platitudes of a Number 10 that disavows its own speeches and lurches uncomfortably between contradictory models, from Blue Labour iconoclasm to liberal progressivism in a matter of days.

We commentators and political obsessives can get bogged down in the differences between the soft Left, Corbynites, Blairite and Brownite factions ad infinitum. Policy minutiae and ideological hairsplitting fascinate us in a way the broader public barely notices. But for voters, it’s often simpler: they want someone likeable, charismatic, a figurehead who feels real. Burnham’s Northern roots help in “red wall” marginals, but his bigger asset is his ease of communication and natural relatability — qualities sorely missing on the Labour front bench, and perhaps in Starmer’s office most of all. I’ve seen him on Goodison Road on match days, drinking cans of Guinness. He comes across as normal, sincere, unrehearsed.

The coming Labour conference will be an exercise in damage control for a flailing administration. And an alternative is coming more clearly into focus; a Northern siren song heard loudly from the Left-wing.

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Jonny Ball is a Contributing Editor at UnHerd. He formerly wrote under the name Despotic Inroad.

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