Burnham’s first balancing act

Just over two weeks into government, Andy Burnham has faced his first major test as Prime Minister – one where he finds himself forced to make trade-offs and unable to please all sides.

The inheritance Labour received from the Tories was abysmal – with the prisons crisis perhaps being the worst area of neglect. Burnham has found himself with a similar challenge to Keir Starmer – the difficult balancing act between protecting the public and freeing up space in prisons.

While the decision to pause early release was universally welcomed, the final call has sparked backlash – with those guilty of rape and serious child sexual and grooming offences to remain behind bars, but domestic abusers able to leave prison early. Unsurprisingly, there has been disappointment from survivors’ organisations, who will no doubt feel let down by this move.

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Such is the reality of government that you cannot always keep everybody on side. New prisons and the extra capacity they bring can’t appear overnight, and so difficult decisions often have to be made. That frustration is evident from Burnham himself, who said in The Telegraph: “I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing.”

While Labour’s fortunes in the polls have reversed since Burnham took power, the fundamentals of the country are unchanged. Britain is still beset by many challenges that have no easy answers – and Burnham will find himself having to make more compromises and potentially leave some groups disaffected.

However, perhaps Burnham will receive some credit for being seen to be pulling out all the stops to try and make things better, even if the ideal solution is out of reach. For a Prime Minister who promised a different style of politics, this is an early reminder that voters will ultimately judge him less on whether every decision is popular than on whether he can convince them the country is moving in the right direction.

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