DAN HODGES: The Burnham era begins today – but the reality is he’s not yet ready for power. There’s no grid of announcements for his first month. An ally admitted: ‘We haven’t even got anyone to fill it in yet.’
Andy Burnham has taken over as Labour leader and Prime Minister, but according to Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges, he is doing so significantly underprepared for the role. Hodges argues that Burnham's team wanted a longer handover period from Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation four weeks earlier, but Starmer refused to remain in place until the party conference in late September, forcing a much faster and messier transition than Burnham's camp had planned.
Hodges points to several signs of disarray, including a poorly managed "special conference" speech on Friday that was seen as backward-looking and aimed only at the party rather than the wider public, confusion and contradictory briefings over Cabinet appointments (with figures such as Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband reportedly jockeying for the Chancellor role), and a policy agenda that appears disjointed, spanning issues from ID cards to North Sea oil and overseas aid without a coherent unifying message. One ally reportedly admitted there was not even a proper grid of announcements prepared for Burnham's first month in office, underlining the lack of readiness Hodges describes.
- Andy Burnham becomes PM today after Starmer's resignation.
- Columnist says his team is unprepared, transition happened too fast.
- Cabinet and policy plans reportedly still in chaos and confusion.
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Andy Burnham, the former Manchester mayor, has taken over as both Labour leader and Prime Minister following Keir Starmer's resignation. Starmer had announced he was standing down about four weeks earlier, but rather than staying on until Labour's party conference in late September as some had expected, he chose to step aside sooner, leaving Burnham less time than his team wanted to prepare for government.
Handovers between leaders are usually planned carefully, with a new administration lining up its top team, its early policy priorities and a schedule of announcements before taking charge. This piece, written by Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges, questions whether that preparation has happened in Burnham's case, citing uncertainty over senior appointments, including who will become Chancellor, and a lack of clarity about what the new government's first weeks will actually involve.
The choice of Chancellor and other Cabinet posts matters because it signals the new government's economic and policy direction, while a settled early agenda is normally how a leader builds public confidence. Names mentioned in this context include Shabana Mahmood and Ed Miliband, both senior Labour figures, alongside broader policy questions ranging from ID cards to North Sea oil and foreign aid spending.