Hearts & Minds: Burnham on manoeuvres: how Labour’s bloodless coup is unfolding

Any doubts Andy Burnham is not seeking to succeed Sir Keir Starmer are over. Burnham’s New Statesman interview set out his stall to be Labour’s next prime minister. He followed that with another in The Telegraph. The mayor of Greater Manchester is ‘on manoeuvres’.

There is no comms rulebook for defenestrating a leader but the same tactics play out. First, the heir apparent should not actively seek the job. That seems odd, given Burnham has made no bones about it, but he was speaking on the urgings of others that he is the right person. Quite how those implorations begin is another matter – Machiavelli would smile. Certainly, there is usually no identifiable source and here, definitely not one that is close to Burnham. He’s reacting to public pressure. Of course he is.  

Even then, the would-be successor must still appear reluctant. It does not pay to be disloyal, to undermine the struggling incumbent. So, comments like ‘as long as X remains our prime minister they enjoy my full support’ and ‘there is no vacancy but should one present itself …’ are rehearsed.

The attack must be dressed as concern, a statesmanlike intervention rather than a coup. Burnham’s line about healing division is the sort of barb that masquerades as advice. He is providing soothing balm, not irritation. Yes, he is.

Choice of platform is crucial. You’re addressing the party, loyalists, wanting their imprimatur. The launch must be in a title that is  parti pris, which never wavers in its backing. The New Statesman fits the bill, it’s Labour through and through, always. The second, in the arch-Tory The Telegraph, is taking it to the opposition, to the country.

Then, there is the question of timing. Move too soon and you’re accused of treachery; late and the crown has already been passed. Burnham’s calculation is that conference season is upon us, when the cameras roll, the grassroots gather and muttered suggestive conversations in bars turn into a crescendo of noise. Labour’s begins at the weekend. Burnham would be asked it repeatedly anyway – he was bound to be attending as a senior Labour figure and not least because it's in nearby Liverpool and he is ‘King of the North’ after all, so go for it.

He does set out his policy manifesto but that hardly matters. This is about image: exhaustion replaced by strength, past versus future. Cometh the hour, cometh Andy Burnham.

Chris Blackhurst is one of the UK’s foremost business journalists. He was previously Editor of The Independent and City Editor of the Evening Standard.