Dear Andy and all other LabourList readers

Dear Andy,

Congratulations.

On Friday, you became the leader of the party I love; today you become the leader of the country I love. Both of these are incredibly important jobs that require levels of skill, confidence, agility, and, yes, luck that are higher than almost any other job in the world. Both can be quite lonely, and when things go wrong – which they inevitably do – it can feel like the eyes of the world are on you.

Those eyes will include ours here at LabourList. That’s our job. The coming days, weeks and months will be fundamental to both changing the country and proving again – as Labour always must – that we are the party people want and need us to be. We will play our part in proving that and ensuring that.

LabourList exists to support the Labour Party to succeed at all levels – one might even say in every postcode. Every week that Parliament sits, we highlight the great changes the Labour government has made – arming activists with stories they can tell on the doorsteps. Week in, week out, we tell the stories of Labour successes in local government. We covered historic legislative achievements such as the Renters’ Rights Act, the Employment Rights Act and the scrapping of the two-child limit.

All of which is to say we celebrate the success of Labour in government and support the government to be the best it can be. We look forward with optimism to doing the same under your leadership.

READ MORE: Read Andy Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister in full

You have a tough job ahead of you. While it is true that the country is better than it was when the Tories left it, we are a long way from feeling hope in every heart and growth in every postcode. You have set yourself a lofty ambition – which matches the immense need for change in the country. But having made a promise for hope in every heart and growth in every postcode, you are going to find a country – and a Labour Party – hungry to make that happen – and fast. Navigating the time that change takes while keeping that hope alive is an incredibly difficult task. You will need to demonstrate not just that you have a vision that inspires hope of big, long-term change. You will need clear measures along the way that demonstrate that the country is – indeed – moving forward. You may not be wrong to say this will be a last chance for Labour to prove we can make the difference the country is crying out for.

You will need every bit of that Manchester swagger you’re bringing to SW1 – and the support of Labour members from every part of the country. The Scots, the Welsh and the English from the Cornish to the Smoggies – not to mention Cockneys like me.

I want to be upfront. There will be days you won’t enjoy reading our pages. You won’t agree with our editorial analysis, or you will agree, but you’ll wish you didn’t. We will publish an op-ed you disagree with. We publish op-eds we disagree with regularly. We disagree with each other at times. That’s because to champion pluralism, you have to model it by respecting all shades of opinion. This is how we model our own version of being one Labour team.

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It will be those days you disagree with what you read that you will need us most.

Unlike the right-wing press, when we are critical of the party, we do so because we want it to succeed – not to fail. When we feel it’s important to be critical, it’s because we think something has gone wrong that can – and should – be put right. The best argument against the bedevilment of factionalism is not ignoring it – but welcoming pluralist debate. If we can learn to do that, we will all be stronger as members and as one Labour Party. It is the space for these debates that is LabourList’s greatest contribution to the Party and its future success.

LabourList is boldly, confidently, authentically Labour, and we can play a huge part in ensuring your government will be too.

Keir Starmer was right to say that as PM it was his job to put country first and party second. And we understand that when you need to speak to the country, we won’t be your first port of call. But that second bit is important too. And this is where we come in. We are the best and the first place you should come when you want to bring the Labour membership into the conversation. And we look forward to working with you in many ways to do so. Our door is always open, our phones are always on, our pages are here, and let’s keep talking music, books, and most importantly politics.

We’re delighted that you are a Friend of LabourList – our friends help keep us going. Our friends support us, challenge us, and are honest with us. We will make sure we work every day to do that. We look forward to working with you.

Once again, congratulations and good luck.

Emma and the whole LabourList team