‘We are all hero voters now’

Well, that was a speech and a half. 

Andy is an exceptionally good orator – perhaps the best we’ve had since Blair.

But Tony Blair (and those who try to emulate him) had a tendency to use the audience of members as applause machines or worse, would deliberately pick fights with the membership in a somewhat crude attempt to demonstrate how New Labour had changed. 

This speech attempted something quite different. It did not look at members and the voters as two separate blocks to be offered two different messages. Instead, Burnham used this first big reintroduction moment to set out a very patriotic framing for his left wing values (one stand out line being when he argued Labour will build a country of solidarity not separation) as a way of finding the common ground between the two and setting up camp there.  

READ MORE: Andy Burnham addresses party conference for the first time as Prime Minister – his speech in full

To do this successfully, he needed to set out clearly what he believes and why and how it is relevant to both groups. That is what this speech attempted and – my natural biases aside – I think he knocked it out of the park.

We await any immediate polling on how the speech went down so I may be proved wrong (and it’s always worth remembering that the vast majority of the country will never watch the speech not care what was said) but this felt like a speech that will have authenticity and resonance whether that be watched in full or clipped on TikTok.  

Burnham has often talked about being a consensus politician. 

The more cynical approach to that is to see it as a capitulation to the right (either of Labour or of the country). For some, on the left and right of the Party consensus must always mean compromise and a bit of what you want is not worth achieving today if you can still convince yourself you’ll get all of it tomorrow. For others there is, ironically, only one way to compromise. 

Here though, Burnham has made a virtue of putting the common shared values that Labour members and the voters of Great Britain hold, A passionate reminder of what we have in common, making an argument at once for both deep devolution and the union in the cause of bringing “spirit of unity and positivity back to our country.”

There was plenty of policy there too. From the announcement of a national commission on voting reform to a National Care Service, he joined the dots between each argument be that on moving from a triple lock to a double lock in the state pension, reforms that will enable new council homes to be acquired and built; leasehold reform; to bus fare caps (as the man himself said it is hard to stop him talking about buses). 

Each joined dot makes the overall picture a little clearer. Each was a thread in the tapestry Burnham is hoping to weave. This was not a laundry list of policies and tractor stats. Each one was pitched at a level that was both emotive and honest. Each one would interest at least some in the hall and attract at least some key voter demographics. 

Andy Burnham’s critics say he is a people pleaser. Unable to nail his colours to the mast for fear of upsetting and one group or another. 

Well I would say that Andy’s amazing technicolours are now firmly attached to that mast. His gamble is that voters will find enough of that common political ground to give him a chance, and want to vote for Labour when they do. Having watched him pull this off in first Greater Manchester then Makerfield I wouldn’t put it past Andy to achieve his ambitions. 

Become a friend of LabourList and join our community. Our friends support our vital non-factional work and get access to exclusive content and events. 

One thing I have come to firmly embrace over the years is that fear of failure is not reason not to do something. But if you do make that move, however trepidatious you are inside, you have to commit 100 percent to it or you will definitely fail.

Andy has offered us a vision of a vasty improved country and set us lofty goals. We may not get all the way there even if reelected at the next election. But we will get so much further than we would have done if we allowed ourselves to believe that our dreams have ceilings. Some of this might be stretch targets but they are achievable and 80 percent of a lot is better than 90 percent of too little. 

Andy has made a lot of Labour voters very happy today. It is my contention that he has done so without upsetting – in fact even persuading – voters in the other camps. Keir Starmer was right at the time when he said “Country first, party second’. It is just that with Keir, that second place just felt so much further behind. 

By seeming to talk to members and voters at once, Andy is managing to reach large portions of both groups with the same groups with the same authentic messages. Messages, perhaps, that feel so authentic precisely because they have not been chopped and changed to meet the marketing manager’s vision of a politician. ‘We’re all hero voters now’ seems to be core to Andy’s strategy.  

We saw so much of who Andy is in that speech. A kind man, an emotional man, a passionate man, a man with a policy platform ready to go. A man both in a hurry and walking at pace – knowing that he may not have that much time at the helm to make his mark but also aware that the very idea of an early election brings many of his colleagues out in hives. 

Subscribe here to our daily newsletter roundup of Labour news, analysis and comment– and follow us on TikTok, Bluesky, WhatsApp, X and Facebook. You can also write to our editor to share your thoughts on our stories and share your own. The best letters are published every Sunday.

• • SHARE: If you have anything to share that we should be looking into or publishing about this story – or any other topic involving Labour– contact us (strictly anonymously if you wish) at [email protected].
  • SUBSCRIBE: Sign up to LabourList’s morning email here for the best briefing on everything Labour, every weekday morning.
  • BECOME A FRIEND: If you enjoyed this, why not consider becoming a Friend of LabourList? Help sustain our journalism, and of course Friends do get benefits…
  • PARTNER: If you or your organisation might be interested in partnering with us on sponsored events or projects, email [email protected].
  • ADVERTISE: If your organisation would like to advertise or run sponsored pieces on LabourList‘s daily newsletter or website, contact our exclusive ad partners Total Politics at [email protected].