“Deindustrialisation. Deregulation. Privatisation. Austerity. Brexit… A country run for vested interests. Not in the public interest. With power held in too few hands.”
It was at about this point, not long into Andy Burnham’s speech at the Labour Party Conference on Tuesday, that the trade unionist sat beside me threw up his hands; he’d seen enough.
“Fuck it, call the election now,” he said, “he’s the real deal.”
Moving through the conference and mingling with the various groups and tendencies after the prime minister’s address, it was difficult to find anyone who wasn’t impressed by Burnham; he is a natural communicator who can ‘tell a story’ about Britain based on a coherent analysis of where it has gone wrong over the last few decades, while setting out a theory on how to address those issues. Unlike his predecessor, he is interested in ideas. And that is where, to the more optimistic among the progressives in Labour, the left can meaningfully contribute.
Having fought for the left in the bruising factional wars of Corbyn and Starmer’s tenures, the trade unionist tells me he is now optimistic not just about Burnham’s abilities as a politician, but about a shift in the leadership’s stance toward the wider labour movement.
“Starmer saw any criticism from the trade unions and the left as a hostile attack,” he said, “whereas Burnham, I think, sees us more as critical friends; he wants to maintain that relationship, even when we disagree.”
By design, Starmer and the people around him drove many progressives out of Labour during his tenure. The Socialist Campaign Group – the party’s ‘leftmost’ grouping of MPs – was completely marginalised as Peter Mandelson’s long-held ambition to lock the parliamentary left away in a “sealed tomb” was realised.
Now, there is a renewed optimism among the Labour left. The faction may not have any role in the administration – even the soft left are largely absent from government payrolls, while several key figures from Starmer’s cabinet remain – but there is a sense that after several difficult years, it might once again have a part to play.
Indeed, a Labour councillor on the left of the party tells me he feels vindicated for “hanging in there” during the Starmer years. “The speech was a huge rhetorical break, and just objectively the most left-wing a prime minister has sounded since the 1970s.”
He continued: “Of course, the ghosts of Starmerism continue to haunt this Cabinet and the real test is delivery and action. But frankly I want him to succeed. I want us to smash Reform and deliver material improvement to working-class people’s lives. And not capitulate on genocide while we’re at it.”
Good vibes aside, this is still the Labour Party, and it wouldn’t be the Labour Party if there wasn’t a fight brewing.
Burnham's plan to replace the triple lock with a ‘double lock’ from 2030 and use the savings to fund a National Care Service looks set to be a major point of contention that many on the left are determined to oppose. Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has already come out against the move, as have Jon Trickett and several other MPs, as well as Unite general secretary Sharon Graham – an outspoken and effective critic of Starmer who wields significant influence across the movement.
There will be battles to come, too, over Burnham’s much-touted plans to bring utilities, and the water industry in particular, under ‘public control’. It’s a phrasing the PM has stuck to rigidly, while signalling that public ownership, while not entirely off the table, would be considered only as a last resort. “Where private companies serve the public interest, we will support them,” he told his conference audience, “but the consequences will be clear for those who do not, including taking back control or public ownership.”
This was a blow to the left, who view eschewing nationalisation in favour of stronger regulation as a sticking plaster rather than a meaningful break from the neoliberal consensus that Burnham has identified as the major problem holding Britain back.
It’s policies like this that mean not everyone is convinced by Burnham, despite the universal acknowledgement that he is an improvement on Starmer in basically every conceivable way.
The mood at the Socialist Campaign Group’s post-speech rally was uncharacteristically jubilant, with some seeing Burnham’s speech and the direction set out by this government, not just on the economy but on Gaza, too, as a victory for their tendency. I put this idea to a party staffer and veteran organiser, who responded by scoffing, shaking her head and then taking a very long sip of her drink.
As the conference winds down and delegates prepare to leave Liverpool, I asked another Labour staffer where he thinks the party’s left wing finds itself. “Same place as before,” he responded. “Firmly on the sidelines.”
Better than a sealed tomb, but perhaps not by much.
