How Burnham's first day as prime minister went

Yesterday was the official start of Burnham’s premiership. His first order of business was assembling his cabinet. After weeks of speculation from the media on this front, it was interesting to see who our new prime minister picked to help him run the country. First, there was the slew of resignations: Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Steve Reid, Peter Kyle, Lord Hermer, Liz Kendall, Hilary Benn, Darren Jones, all Labour big beasts, all of them returning to the backbenches. Worth saying here that Burnham created some powerful enemies on his first day in the office with that list; this may well tell further down the road for him. He also pissed off the left, which he clearly felt he had to, but I will expand on that in a bit.

There are positives to say about the cabinet Burnham chose, mostly because it could have been so much worse. He didn’t pick Ed Miliband to be his chancellor, something that would have been a fatal error. That would have been Burnham’s “Suella Braverman as Home Secretary for the umpteenth time” moment, where you knew he was 100% doomed to fail. He avoided that, which is to Burnham’s credit. John Healy as chancellor isn’t a bad pick when you consider it could have Miliband or Cooper. Or would have involved moving Shabana Mahmood out of the Home Office, which would have been a terrible idea.

Jonathan Reynolds as Business Secretary makes sense. Lucy Powell as education secrtary will be more of the same middling soft-left rubbish as we had with Phillipson, but again, it could have been so much worse. That’s the basic message from yesterday: this could have been so much worse. That does not mean it is good, I hasten to add.

Do I see this Burnham government coming good and delivering enough change to win the next general election? No, I do not. But I feel less negative about it than I did on the weekend, which is something. Burnham has given himself a chance by assembling a half-decent under the circumstances cabinet that probably won’t blow up in his face in a fortnight, which counts as a half-decent start.

It is worth pointing out the weak spots from yesterday’s appointments before moving on to the bigger picture, however. Wes Streeting as defence secretary is faintly ridiculous. It feels like a punishment move by Burnham, one that is in very poor taste given how important this position is in the current international climate. Rayner as housing secretary feels like a joke. Miatta Fahnbulleh as energy secretary means that we will have continuation Miliband in that department, which is unfortunate to say the least.

As mentioned above, Burnham has created a problem for himself with the left already. The left are fond of backing Labour leaders until said leader does something to annoy them, which is inevitable. The British left is the epitome of a group of people who are never happy. There was no way he could have made Miliband chancellor, but it is worth pointing out that many on the left will be crushed by him not doing so. They will also be enraged at Mahmood remaining Home Secretary.

This might all be fine if Burnham was showing signs of following a strategy that would let him eat into the northern and Midlands seats Labour are currently likely to lose to Reform at the next election - but I don’t see that. It will take a lot more than “I like the Stone Roses” to win back the large sections of the country Labour have lost under Starmer’s two-year premiership. His first move, the VAT removal on energy bills, is pretty thin gruel. Yes, I should be patient and see what he comes up with up to and including Labour’s conference in September, but the stuff Burnham has talked about since he became heir apparent has been uninspiring, and that initial policy feels like more of the same.

In summary, I give Burnham credit for not stumbling out of the blocks, which I will admit I thought likely to happen. But there is a long way to go before a Bunrham premiership feels like something that has a real chance at success.