Quote · The Rest Is Politics
545. Burnham Beats Reform: Britain’s Next Prime Minister?
Where this was said
Trust, Anger and the Road to Downing Street
At 16:32 · chapter starts 15:35
Alastair Campbell paints the human picture behind the politics: there is next to no trust between Starmer and Burnham, and the process around the Gordon and Denton candidacy block is why Burnham has refused the offer of a cabinet seat. Starmer will be feeling angry, Campbell says — he led Labour to a landslide, the economy was beginning to pick up before Trump's Iran war, the NHS numbers are moving in the right direction — but his anger is not translating into public awareness of his achievements. Rory Stewart then delivers his sharpest analytical passage: Starmer's reported private mood maps almost phrase by phrase onto Joe Biden's in his final weeks. 'I'm not getting credit for what I've done. The only reason this is going wrong is forces beyond my control. I'm essentially doing what my opponents want on the key issues.' That anger, Stewart concludes, is the anger of someone clinging on when party and country know they can't win — and you're not there for the gratitude, you're there to win.
By using the NEC to block Andy Burnham from standing in Gordon and Denton, Keir Starmer broke the cardinal rule: if you strike at the king, you must kill him. Having failed once to neutralise Burnham, he cannot now control him.
Keir Starmer's reported private anger sounds 'almost phrase by phrase' like Joe Biden in his final weeks: I beat the big threat, the economy was turning, it's not my fault. That anger is legitimate, but it is the anger of someone clinging on when party and country know he cannot win.
