Mr Burnham is claiming his salary and expenses as an MP but has not been a good attender so far. He is not speaking out in Parliament about the changes he wants to government policy. We have not heard the details of the Makerfield test for spending and policy.
It looks as if the relaxed timetable for nominations for the Labour leadership and then the delays in arranging the handover from Sir Keir are all designed to ensure Mr Burnham only takes up the job of PM after the Commons has gone into recess. This will mean MPs have to wait until early September to hear from the new government and be able to ask them questions.
What Mr Burnham should do is to get the current government to announce that Commons will break for the summer recess on 23 July, the date for recess in the Lords, instead of the premature July 16 th in the present timetable. That would allow the new PM to make a statement Monday 20 th of the main changes he wants in government policy. The Chancellor could update the House on 21 July to reassure markets about the new governments finances, and the Home Secretary could tell us how they will handle borders , crime and migration on 22 July. Any other department facing serious change could also be fitted in for a statement.
Why doesn’t Mr Burnham want to start the task of winning over lost voters and reassuring MPs that he does know the changes people want? It looks as if he hasn’t a clue what to do to bring his facile soundbites into reality. Number 10 is not a good hiding place for a timid or unsure PM.
July 12, 2026
Number 10 is not a good hiding place for a timid or unsure PM.
Your right on that score Sir John look at Starmers record in times of trouble he’d bugger off to Brussels to see his friends in the EU to try and stitch us up trying to find ways to get us back into there club, and that’s were Burnham will come unstuck if he follows Starmer lead into getting us tied up In the dreaded EU
July 12, 2026
John, he wants to extend his honeymoon period without the interruption of important policy details.
I guess the recess will give him time to work through policies, which just about touches the sides of the vague outlines made by Starmer, although I am quite sure they will be very different (worse) in practice and effect.
Just shows what a farce it was having a Kings speech just a few weeks ago.
July 12, 2026
Were Burnham a Tory or Reform PM we’d hear plenty from Labour. Outrage at others is something Labour do well; it comes naturally to them, though they have a curious blind spot about their own failings. It is a formidable political weapon which has even ousted a PM.
The outrage at Farage’s finances or Boris’s activities is never successfully echoed when parallel sins are committed by Labour figures. Perhaps other parties should develop the technique.
July 12, 2026
Facile sound soundbites – “growth in every postcode and hope in every heart”, more power to local politicians like Sadiq Kahn, Mark Drakeford, Nicola Sturgeon… a council house for every one, continued open borders, remain in the ECHR, realign with the EU, and a number 10 up North and (it seems) odds on Ed Miliband as Chancellor. Plus no money to do any of it. What could go wrong!
Not the sort of agenda that should give anyone or the markets any hope!
July 12, 2026
He does say he will stick with the Starmer Manifesto – so I assume he will undo the vast, crippling NI increases the disingenuous Reeves and Starmer delivered (this while doing their growth, growth, growth rain dance). This a huge and clear breach or their manifesto as is their abject failure to even try to smash the gangs and their EU moves.
July 12, 2026
Your difficulty, Lord Redwood is that you are an honest injun and a true democrat. Woke Socialists allied to Islamists do not play by the rules, have no respect for democracy nor for parliament. Secrecy, deceit (taqqiya) and stealth are their watchwords.