Enda Brady: UK Correspondent on Andy Burnham becoming the new UK Prime Minister

A new era of British politics has arrived at Downing Street with Andy Burnham vowing to put people before politics. 

The former Manchester Mayor and Labour cabinet minister has become Britain's fifth leader in four years, replacing Sir Keir Starmer. 

He wants to make politics more about problem-solving than point-scoring – taking power out of government and putting it into the hands of the people. 

UK Correspondent Enda Brady told Mike Hosking the Labour Party will have to present a united front now, as they have a short window in which to convince the public they can continue to govern. 

He says Burnham needs to find some quick wins to make the public believe what he’s telling them.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I've been quite the night our time for Burnham.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
A massive change in our politics. That's what Number ten
North is about. Taking the power out of Westminster and
Whitehall into every postcode in the land and from there
building a new economy. These are big changes. They are
the biggest changes in forty years. We've had forty years
of trickle down economics, which hasn't trickled down very much

(00:24):
at all to many parts of Britain. You go up
and down the country, you can see high streets and
decline communities that never recovered from the the industrialization of
the nineteen eighties. And this is what I'm about changing.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
In the Varieties book with this morting mite.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Yeah, good morning, Mike. Good to speak to again.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
And you two, what do you make of the changes
so far? Healey out of liftfield to a degree.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Yeah, but you know what, I think that's a little
bit of loyalty there as well, because he was brave
enough to step down and he contributed to Starmer getting
the boost because Healy did not like that defense plan
and he just quit. So I think it was out
of left field. Nobody saw that coming. But John Healey
is now Chancellor and he really needs to get a

(01:07):
grip on things the UK. Here's a statistic for you
for your money, people, the UK is spending every day
seven hundred and eighty million en Z dollars servicing the
interest on the debt this government owes. That is eight
percent of everything they take in. Eight percent of government
budgets per annum is being spent on servicing debt. I mean,

(01:30):
if the UK was a human being, I think the
banks will be digging a hole for that person by now.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
It's interesting, isn't it. So what do you make of
the other appointments and with the Healy thing? Does that
mean that Miller Bain was just too much for the
markets and the compromises foreign.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Yes, I think very much. So I think ed Milliban
coming back in. I mean I wouldn't personally have him
in my cabinet if I was Prime minister. I think
he's a busted flush. But it's a nod to healing
divisions in the Labor Party, keeping them up united, and yes,
not having him as chancellor it just would have been
too much for the market. So he gets Foreign Secretary.

(02:07):
John Healy goes and becomes Chancellor the Exchequer and shabanam
Ma mood. She made it clear she didn't want to
leave home secretary. So look, there will be a Burnham bounce.
I wish Andy Well. I've known him a long time.
He is a genuine man. He is a workaholic. He
actually cares and I hope as people have been listening
and hearing him speak, he can communicate and he'll need to.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
They the words were nice in terms of those who
got shuffled out, and there were a lot of them.
Do they behave themselves or not or we just don't
know yet.

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Yes, they will behave themselves because ultimately, the Labor Party
now has a short window in which to convince the
public that it is a party that continued to government,
that can continue to govern and win the next election,
a party that can see off Nigel Farage and reform UK,
and a party that can keep the Conservatives out. So
they need stay together. They need to stay united, and

(03:02):
Burnham needs to find some quick wins to make the
public believe what he's telling them because they've had four
decades of jam Tomorrow here and guess what the jam
jars empty.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah, that is true. Mamoud stays time secretary, and one
of the things he doesn't talk about much Burnham. Is
this business of migration or illegal migration? Is he what's
he gonna do with it? What's the lyft leina do
with it? Is he soft on it? Does he cracked
down on it?

Speaker 3 (03:27):
What do you do?

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Well?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
You know, let's just nail this now. He is not
as left as people say. I would say he's quite
a moderate. I would say he is the center right
of the Labor Party. Migration is a huge issue, illegal migration.
People breaking into this country. Forty thousand people a year
are coming across on these dinghies and bolts from France.

(03:50):
Forty thousand people a year. We don't know who they are,
we don't know where they're from. A lot of them
are undocumented because the criminal gangs driving them over here
them to get rid of passports. So it needs tackling.
I'll be curious to see how he goes about it.
But there's just look, it's like backamol the United Kingdom.
You know, I joked earlier on on air mic that

(04:12):
they need to put a revolving door. Never mind a
big black door that opens and shuts. They just need
to put one of those kind of office revolving doors.
On the front because that's how quickly they're coming in
and out.

Speaker 1 (04:22):
Watch your vibe on PMQ's. Is he good at them?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
He'll be very good because he can speak, he's got
a brain, he can think on his feet and look.
Starmer was a funly, very decent man, A very decent man,
highly intelligent, but far more suited to law than politics.
Andy Burnham is a scrapper. He can go into a room,
he can hold an argument, he can make an argument
and he can land the point. I don't think he

(04:46):
will have any problem at PMQ's. He's a very likable man.
You know, all the comedians are making jokes about just
how ordinary he is. He is quite ordinary. He likes
tea with Milkin at two sugars. He likes watching soccer,
he loves Evertton Football Club. He's very fond of his parents.
He's a really, really likable man. And I think you
know what really made me laugh today I went on

(05:07):
made the mistake going on Facebook, a lot of people saying,
who elected this guy? He's not my prime minister. How
can you just swan in and force a prime minister
on someone? Hang on, I give you, Rishi Sunak, I
give you, Liz trust I can keep going here. Teresa
May eventually won an election. Boris Johnson eventually won an election.
But the last four Conservative prime ministers were all forced

(05:30):
on people by the membership of the Conservative Party. So look,
Labor need to hit the ground running. Burnham needs some quick.

Speaker 1 (05:37):
Wins related metters, but slightly off topic, just because I'm
interested of like the British steel thing and the renationalization
in the Chinese threat over League election one two tims
water looks to be on its knees. Is that a
thing for Boonhema? That is this going to sort of
blow up in his face, will become a problem with what.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
Well he wants to renationalize everything happened to live in
the Thames water at catchment area. I am six miles
away from the River Thames in Henley upon Thames, and
Mike he Ever come to visit me. I could not
allow you to dip your toe in the River Thames
because of the risk of you ending up in hospital
with some bacteria born infection. That's what they've done to

(06:18):
the River Thames. That water company is forty billion dollars.
That's billion dollars, forty billion dollars in debt. So the
management of that company cannot in any way say to
the Prime Minister, Oh, we don't like you putting us
in special measures and we don't want to be renationalized.
I'm sorry, you've screwed it up. You haven't got a voice.

(06:38):
Burnham's going to do that. How he deals with the Chinese, however,
and the whole steel industry, well, that could result in
the trade war.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
We will look forward. We're talking to you in a
couple of days. I appreciate it very much. Into Bridey
out of Britain for us this Tuesday morning.

Speaker 3 (06:51):
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