Labour’s last chance? The people shaping Andy Burnham’s grand plans for Britain
The new prime minister has declared he wants to end 40 years of neoliberalism. But is he really prepared to be that radical? In May 2025, when Keir Starmer was still prime minister
By The Guardian
Andy Burnham used a speech in London to set out his wider political ambitions, in a sign of the thinking now shaping Labour’s future direction.
The Guardian report said that in May 2025 Labour politicians, campaigners and journalists gathered at the Ministry of Sound for a day-long event organised by Compass, a campaign group founded by Neal Lawson.
The event focused on child poverty, the Murdoch-owned media and the rise of the radical right. Lawson said the gathering came because he felt the Labour government was failing and needed to be pulled into the 21st century.
He also criticised the Starmer government’s support for the Conservatives’ two-child benefit cap, its position on Gaza and its language on immigration.
At 4pm, Burnham, then mayor of Greater Manchester, delivered the closing address.
The article says Burnham has since been linked with a programme of ideas that could include nationalising Thames Water, scrapping the triple lock on state pensions, putting workers on company boards, building major city rail projects, introducing proportional representation or requiring new bicycles to have built-in lights.
It also says civil servants responsible for local growth are being moved into a new department called the Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, led by Haigh.