Andy Burnham has raised the bar for government

Ahead of this year’s Labour party conference, my colleagues and I argued that Andy Burnham’s first speech as prime minister would be a key test of his leadership – whether he could stick to his policy priorities, resist extraneous demands and lay the groundwork with his party for the difficult choices ahead. The PM’s conference speech was an admirable effort to meet this challenge. Burnham demonstrated he was willing to tackle big, long-standing and contentious issues, to give a clear sense of his government’s direction, to think longer term and to expose policy trade-offs to the public. He also showed vastly better communication skills than many of his immediate predecessors.

The speech raised the bar for government to deliver, conveying both Burnham’s belief in the ability of government to fix the UK’s problems and his conviction that government and politics need to reform themselves in order to do so.  

The speed and funding of Burnham’s policy goals are uncertain

Burnham was bold in the selection of policies he intends to tackle, from ‘adjusting’ the pension triple lock to pay for social care free at the point of need, to electoral and welfare reform and revisiting the future of the UK’s relationship with Europe. But inevitably his conference speech raised far more questions than it answered.  

While the level of ambition, and political complexity, was high, the timescale for progress on many of these issues was slow. For example, given Burnham’s genuine personal commitment to social care reform, pushing implementation into the next parliament is a risky strategy: after the next election he may have a smaller majority or even lose power. And we await the budget to hear how Burnham and his chancellor will find the money to implement his bold agenda – reforming the triple lock only removes an unfunded and unaffordable future pressure, rather than releasing new funds to pay for new policy commitments.    

Government reform will be a prerequisite for delivery

Burnham’s welcome ambition will only be met if government itself work better, as he has recognised. So far, however Burnham’s innovations show promise rather than evidence of real change.  

His reshaping of the centre of government – with the creation of No.10 North within a new Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (OPMC) – and a strong emphasis on devolution show a welcome interest in how government works, but it remains unclear how No.10 North is really plugging into the government system and driving change, while everyone in Whitehall is still referring to the Cabinet Office rather than the OPMC. There is a major danger that this reform turns out not even to be a successful rebranding, still less a meaningful improvement to the centre of government, without sustained attention from the PM. Cabinet secretary Antonia Romeo’s Future Civil Service Review is welcome, but the PM must press for it to have a clear objective and sustain a high level of ambition.

Burnham must balance drive and delegation

Building a government to deliver is part of the challenge facing Burnham. The PM must also be clear about who is responsible for delivery. His name-checks for his cabinet ministers seemed to be a deliberate move, both to emphasise that his government is not a one-man-band as well as to allocate responsibilities to secretaries of state for riskier policy areas or those he is happy to delegate. But it was also clear that the key policy proposals in Burnham’s speech were very much his personal priorities.  

This central leadership drive represents a welcome shift from the Starmer premiership – during which a lack of clarity about the PM’s priorities gummed up his government with decisions referred to the centre – and should give the civil service greater clarity and momentum to operate. But the new PM must also allow his ministers and other layers of government sufficient autonomy to develop and own policy and delivery in their areas. Mayoral government is very much the flavour of the month, but Burnham’s announcements about new powers for mayors have been matched by various central government prescriptions for what they must do – on bus fares and rough sleeping for example. For devolution to be genuine, mayors need the space to make their own decisions, and mistakes, not simply to act as the regional delivery arm of central government.

With Burnham’s conference speech stretching the timescales of what he says he will deliver, more immediate tests – and opportunities – await. A difficult budget is fast approaching and, over the course of the autumn, we have been promised a ten-year plan, a devolution white paper and proposals for welfare reform. Details will need to emerge, and choices will have to be taken. At the same time, the prime minister must also sustain the momentum behind his government reforms if he is to deliver the actual change that he has promised. An hour or so of stirring oratory revealed Andy Burnham’s ambitions. The months ahead will show whether he can build and lead a government to deliver.