Last chance saloon?

The only way out is through

Since 1997, the UK has had, if you include Andy Burnham, who may or may not be elected unopposed as Leader of the Labour Party, and, therefore, PM, nine Prime Ministers. Of those, only five have won a General Election – the public’s trust, if you like – in their own right: Blair, Cameron, May, Johnson, Starmer. All the rest were thrust upon us by their own internal party machinations.

Will, or even should, Burnham enter No10 unopposed? There are arguments both for and against this. One the one hand, Sir Kier Starmer’s micro-aggressive resignation timing means Burnham will have precious little time to not only get his plans in place, but also to have them tested in a contest with other, probably equally as competent, contenders.

On the other hand, a quick route into No 10 means he will have to just get on with the job. Quickly and thoroughly.

It does feel as though the latter route is the more likely, especially as Wes Streeting, the former Health Secretary whose resignation letter kicked much of this off in the first place, has given Burnham his backing. Streeting may have decided that Burnham is the best person for the job. He may prefer for it to be Burnham’s head above the parapet and not his own, or he may be playing the long game. Perhaps he’s betting that Burnham’s coronation will short-lived, and that there will, in just over three years’ time, be a vacancy on the Other Side of the House, as Leader of the Opposition. Nigel Farage may think he’s the real opposition, but that’s just in his head, unless the Reform Party gets a great deal more proper politicians standing and elected, and not just randoms who are in it for the lolz.

Burnham does have experience; I’ll give him that. He was a popular, effective MP, he’s served in Government before, which Starmer never did, and he was a popular, effective Mayor of Greater Manchester. So he does have political chops.

What do we him to do? Stop banging on about the 1.5million homes, for start. You haven’t built them, you are not building them and you were never going to build them, not in those sorts of numbers. Instead, start working on ways to get some of those numbers built. No one is building or buying homes at the moment, it seems Because they can’t afford to. Or they are scared that they won’t be able to afford to, which comes to the same thing. Or because they can’t make enough money at it, or it takes too long. The head of Berkley Homes said today that planning permission, Section 106, getting Building Safety Regulator approvals and a whole raft of other issues are keeping the housebuilding chest lid shut. He said that it is now taking eight years to get an apartment building in London completed, up from five a decade ago. To be honest, even five years seems a ridiculously long time, but eight is almost two Parliaments.

There’s already so much speculation already about what Burnham will or won’t do, and who he will or won’t have in his Cabinet. None of it particularly helpful, to the markets or the market. Labour is in the last chnace saloon now. We just need something to happen. We need a boost to house-building, and to house-buying. We can’t even properly drown our sorrows at the moment, as hospitality is on its knees. It’s probably too much to hope that the National Insurance rise genie will be put back in the jar, but something has to happen. Keep calm and carry on just isn’t cutting it anymore.