Edna Brady: Andy Burnham becomes UK Prime Minister tomorrow

In a quick transition Andy Burnham will be walking into 10 Downing Street as Prime Minister just over four weeks after winning a by-election. 

UK correspondent Edna Brady told Francesca Rudkin the public are uncertain about the former Mayor of Manchester.

"I think people are a bit shocked because, in all honesty, they don't really know very much about him, what he stands for, and what he's going to do."

But, Brady expects he will be a 'breath of fresh air'.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Tomorrow Night, New Zealand time, former Manchester mayor Andy Burnham
will officially take over the reins as the UK Prime Minister.
It will make him the seventh leader of Britain in
just ten years. UK correspondent Andender Brady has been following
Burnham's rise and joins me now, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
Ender, Francesca, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Just over four weeks ago, Andy Burnham won a by election.
On July the seventeenth, he was elected as the new
Labour Party leader and on Monday he walks into ten
Downing Street as Prime Minister. How is the British public
feeling about this quick transition.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
I think people are a bit shocked because in all honesty,
they don't really know very much about him, what he
stands for and what he's going to do. But look
at the rules of the rules and Monday morning, by
the time care Starmer has been to see the King resigned,
by lunchtime, Andy Burnham will be UK Prime Minister, and

(01:09):
I think people are a little bit kind of wary.
Some are excited, some are disappointed. And let's look, let's
just see what he does.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
Is he ready?

Speaker 3 (01:21):
So the key message from his speech on Friday, he
said it four times, I am ready. I'm curious. I'm
really excited to see what he does. I've known Andy
Burnham thirty odd years. He's been an MP, he's been
a cabinet minister. He tried to run for leadership at
the Labor Party twice before then he went off with

(01:44):
the Corbin years when Jeremy Corbyn kind of drag Labor
to the left of the left of the left. He
headed off and he became mayor of Manchester for nine years.
He's done really well up there. But there's a huge
difference between running a city and running a country.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Because I was going to ask you if we have
any idea about his worldview. Do we know how he
feels about Trump, how he feels about Ukraine and Russia China?

Speaker 3 (02:11):
Okay, so let's let's dissect this. It's a really good question.
I think he will be pro Ukraine, anti Russia, and
I think he'll avoid Donald Trump like the place to be. Frank,
It's think it's a good yeah. I think it's a
really really good plan. Because look, there's nothing to be

(02:32):
gained from being friends with this man. Kirse Starmer went
with open hands, an open mind and a very open
heart and invited him back to the UK for an
unprecedented second presidential visit to the royal family. And within
days Trump had turned on Starmer, turned on the UK,

(02:55):
absolutely hated c De Candem, Mayor of London. So I
think Andy Barnham will just think, you know what, let's
just crack on, let's do our own thing, and Donald
Trump can just keep trumping.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
So when it comes to his domestic plan, he's promised
the most significant change moment in forty years. Do you
hear the sense of how he's going to go about
this yet?

Speaker 3 (03:15):
So I think the plan is to nationalize everything from
energy to trains to water and just kind of take
state control of Britain. And look, it's a very very
strange time he comes in. Everyone's skint. There doesn't seem
to be any cash in the coffers. The UK government

(03:37):
is hemorrhaging money left right and center in terms of
paying down interest, paying down debt. You know these asylum
seekert hotels costing upwards of sixteen million dollars a day.
I think he needs to come in, be radical, be different,
be difficult, and just put himself out there and spell
it out to the UK public that you know, change

(03:59):
is needed and he is it.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
The immediate focus is of course on naming key members
of his cabinet, and he's he's set out distinctly left
wing vision for Britain, but will thus be reflected in
his cabinet. Will he be trying to keep the party hippy?

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Well, look, you say left wing, I think he's quite
a centrist. I've known Andy a long time. This is
a very measured guy. He's a good speaker, excellent communicator,
walks into a room, he can talk to people. You
walk into a room with Keer Starmer kir is in
the corner drinking coffee and reading and just doesn't really

(04:39):
grasp the public opinion. I think Andy Burnham is going
to be a breath of fresh air. I'm excited to
see what he does. But I think in terms of change,
I think he is here for at least three years
and he is going to go in on day one
with a vision where he leads the Labor Party into

(04:59):
the next election summer twenty nine and they win. It's
all about planning ahead and I don't expect anything radical immediately,
but I think he will just be looking for three
years ahead and that's the plan.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
How much precire is he under Eddie takes over seven
pms and ten years. He has to make this work,
doesn't it?

Speaker 3 (05:23):
He does, he does. He's under a lot of pressure
and I think the main problem is the right wing media.
He got a lot of newspapers here who hate labor,
so you've got conservative supporting newspapers like The Mail, the Express,
the Telegraph and all of the kind of right wing
social media influencers who want him to fail. And the

(05:45):
reason they want him to fail is because they want
a general election before Christmas, where we'll put to the
test all the support for the form UK. Nigel Forraj
is he the next prime Minister and waiting after Burnham,
And I think Burnham just needs to write it out,
just get in, get his feet under the number two table.

(06:07):
And there's even talk of him moving Number ten Downing
Street to Manchester three days a week. So I think
it's a matter of him getting in and just bedding
in and communicating with the British public and letting them
know that you know, I'm here and I'm here for
the next three years.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
It's been reported over here that Andy Burnham has appointed
a KIWI as part of his team, Hayden Monroe, can
you tell us anything about that?

Speaker 3 (06:34):
So look, this guy is a comms professional and a
high performance individual, and yeah, look it doesn't matter about nationalities.
Nobody cares that he's a KEI with. I think what
we want is someone who can come in and communicate
exactly what the leader wants, what the government is about,

(06:57):
and get that to the person on the street. Because
right now everyone thinks of Andy Burnham as always the
mayor of Manchester. How does he suddenly ended up as
Prime Minister? And I think what they want from Hayden
is commute, clear, clear, crystal clear comms that gets out
there to the people on the street that they know
what the government is about, what Burnham is doing and

(07:18):
what he plans to do.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Thank you so much, Inda. I know that you're very
keen to go and want your replay again of Ireland
in versus you're black, So I'll let you go and Jesse.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
I need to go now. Lovely talking to you, have
a lovely Sunday, and let's not talk about rugby.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
It was into Bride of the pretty much hang up
on me when I mentioned the rugby there.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live the News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio