‘Ready to go?’

Politics is so often about balancing competing tensions.

Often that means dealing with competing policy priorities. Policies that are designed to solve one problem may have unintended consequences elsewhere. Some measures will be divisive even within your own coalition. Legislation takes time and care – harder to do in a world that demands immediate action and a country impatient for change.

And then there’s money. As we are discovering from the intense negotiations around the Defence Investment Plan, when you have restricted circumstances the need to move money from some departments to fund others is always fraught. As a result, there are rarely outright winners – and it is very easy for everyone to feel like – and even noisy complaints about – being a loser.

Today, Daniel Green has given us a fascinating run down of policies that Andy Burnham has spoken in favour of on the campaign trail. These range from constitutional reform to changes to a variety of taxes – all within the constraints of his promise to stick to the fiscal rules. Meanwhile, former civil servant Damien Shannon has given advice to any potential incoming PM based on his inside experience of watching this happen.

READ MORE: What would Andy Burnham do if he becomes Prime Minister?

As always, it is worth saying that there is no current contest to change the Leader of the Labour Party – and therefore PM. But it would be madness to pretend this isn’t an active conversation.

There are a swath of clichés about politicians being too presumptuous – ‘measuring the curtains’, ‘taking the voters for granted’, ‘getting ahead of themselves’ – being just a handful. And this pressure is very real for those on the frontline.

This, of course, goes double for Burnham who is not yet an MP. In fact I hesitated over typing ‘yet’ there because I too do not want to take the voters of Makerfield for granted. This is a close, tough contest with no guarantee of success for Burnham. We’ll find out a week today if he is to return to Westminster.

Whatever their view of what should happen after the 18th, Labour members all hope beyond hope that he will. Stopping the onward march of Reform – especially after the horrendous unrest we have seen this week – fuelled in part by right wing rhetoric – has never been more important.

Andy has been open about his intention to join any contest to run the Labour Party and country if he does win in Makerfield. So what he is saying about policy matters.

So too does his being prepared. Burnham has an incredibly difficult task. He is spending all his time – rightly – on the doorsteps of Makerfield, persuading the undecided and reassuring voters there that they will remain a priority for him. This is absolutely the right thing to do.

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But, as we know, one of the dominant criticisms of Starmer’s team when they came into government is that they were ill prepared for what came after the election. They had a great, incredibly successful campaign to win the election, but there is a prevalent sense that they did not have a plan for how to start governing with the same level of energy. Which – fairly or unfairly – has led to the sense that they ‘hit the ground reviewing’. This sense of incremental pace and even stasis is a key part of the poor polling numbers Labour face. Andy has to be aware that – were he to win – he cannot be seen to do the same. Especially as he would have significantly less time before a general election to prove his ability to deliver.

Whoever wins the leadership contest we are all talking about but isn’t yet taking place will need to be ready on their first day after that contest. That is also true for Starmer and Streeting – whose recent and/or incumbent experience in government is both help in terms of experience and knowledge of the workings of government and hindrance in their ability to find ways to pivot and change.

So while ‘no complacency’ should be a driving force for all in politics, this cannot be confused with not doing the work to prepare for the eventuality of being in government.

Teams need to be built (again true of Starmer who is currently without a permanent Director of Communications or Chief of Staff). Policies need to be prioritised. Ideas need to be developed into workable legislation. MPs will need to be briefed and primed to ensure they are ready, willing and able to support any new agenda.

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None of this needs to happen in a way that makes voters feel taken for granted. Political clichés exist for a reason – they tend to be true. But they are also dangerous when they are thought-terminating. Starmer, Streeting and Burnham all need to be thinking deeply about the government they hope to lead for the second half of this Parliament, how that currently works (and doesn’t) and how they can and should do things differently and successfully.

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