‘Beyond the vibe-shift – five immediate things Burnham should do to mend politics’

Andy Burnham is right to say “politics isn’t working” for most ordinary people and that we need to draw a line.

And he has previously discussed some genuinely radical proposals – from introducing proportional representation and abolishing the House of Lords, to removing the political whip so MPs can vote on constituency-based lines not party lines. These are big ideas which – if done right – could genuinely transform our democracy. 

But they will take years to do, and there is ‘many a slip’ ahead.

With public trust in politicians at just 14% and trust in government at a derisory 12% compared to 40% in 1986, there is some urgency to making people feel good about those who govern them. The Labour manifesto promised the country a reset in public life but it has been too timid and too piecemeal in making changes, and too quiet about what it has actually achieved to date. 

After the early ‘freebies’ scandal that undermined Starmer’s promise of ‘change’, Burnham’s initial promises to donate 15% of his MPs salary to local causes, and to try to stick to the stands when watching football are good ‘vibe setting’ measures. But unless Burnham gets serious about addressing some of the serious institutional and structural vulnerabilities that leave our politics open to undue influence and susceptible to political scandal, the vibe shift won’t last long. 

READ MORE: ‘A new address isn’t enough, Britain needs a new way of doing politics’

One of the first things Burnham can do is curtail the influence of wealthy donors’ money on our elections. Bringing in a cap on political donations, and committing to a serious cross-party initiative on how party funding should work long-term, would be a game changer. Public appetite for a cap on donations and increasingly for public funding for political parties in order to reduce the influence of big donors is strong. Burnham himself said on the campaign trail that he would like to see a cap. And there is a ready-made legislative vehicle for Burnham to make good on this in September – when the Representation of the People Bill returns to the Commons.

The second thing Burnham needs to get on top of fast is bringing corporate lobbying out of the shadows. The UK is well behind a range of OECD countries, as well as behind the EU and Scotland in how transparent it is about who government and officials are meeting with. As the ‘freebiegate’ and Greensill scandal showed, lobbying scandals are deeply corrosive to trust in governments. Again, there is a ready-made vehicle for action. The Ethics and Integrity Commission’s recent report, commissioned because of Peter Mandelson’s lobbying links, made sweeping recommendations for reform – and the new government needs to implement them in full and at pace.

The third thing Burnham needs to do is get a grip on restoring trust in Parliament. Two years into a Labour government there is little to show for its manifesto commitment to limit MPs taking up second jobs. A Guardian analysis last year showed that more than one-third of MPs declared outside earnings, working 32,000 hours in the first 264 days of parliament.

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Meanwhile, the sight of party donors and unqualified political allies being promoted to the House of Lords remains a constant source of scandal. Urgent action is needed to inject proper checks and balances into the appointments process, with robust new powers for the House of Lords Appointments Commission to veto nominations. Long-standing recommendations to cap the number of peers and prevent an overall party majority are also essential to prevent the body’s future political capture.

And finally, proper teeth and robust backing for standards regulators, like the Ethics and Integrity Commission and the Independent Advisor on Ministerial Standards are needed. These bodies could be abolished in a matter of weeks, or undermined fatally, leaving no checks and balances against the kind of financial self-dealing we have seen under the Trump administration. We cannot afford to be complacent about the constitutional importance of having strong regulators, with statutory footing and robust powers, that hold the executive to account.

There will be a huge temptation for those newly in office to push these kinds of reforms down the priority list. There will be ferocious lobbying that this would be a naval-gazing waste of parliamentary time, and there will be disingenuous campaigns led by vested interests to say these are all too difficult or not a political priority.

Team Burnham must give very short shrift to all that noise. While it is true that people will judge the new government by better living standards and public services, how they feel about their politicians and their integrity is crucial to delivering on these promises. A failure to act within the first 100 days to show a serious commitment to restoring trust risks tipping us closer than ever towards a catastrophic loss of faith in politics. There is no time to waste, political reform must start now.

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