Owen Jones argues that Andy Burnham's Labour conference speech demonstrates the political left has successfully won the rhetorical battle over Britain's economic direction. Burnham explicitly rejected the past 40 years of British policy—condemning deindustrialisation, deregulation, privatisation, austerity, and Brexit as fundamental mistakes, whilst invoking class politics and criticising a society "run for vested interests" rather than the public interest. This represents a remarkable vindication for left-wing arguments that were previously dismissed or marginalised by mainstream politics.

However, Jones cautions that rhetorical shifts must be matched by substantive policy changes. Whilst Burnham has begun moving towards greater state intervention through initiatives like Great British Grid and criticism of water privatisation, these represent only partial moves from a neoliberal model that has exhausted itself. Jones observes that the left's political dominance in argument resulted from Labour's electoral dependence on left-wing voters who defected to the Greens, and suggests that governments across the political spectrum are increasingly being forced to abandon neoliberal policies regardless of ideological preference.