Burnham has a battle plan, with social care the flagship. Risks lie ahead, but Labour now travels in hope | Polly Toynbee
Here in Liverpool, the PM’s ambition for the party – and the country – is evident. There should be no complacency, but also no fear
His ambition is big enough to see from space as he promises the “biggest change to Britain in 40 years”. Andy Burnham pledges what no prime minister until now has dared to, breaking the long spell of Thatcherism. Her sham monopoly markets in public services have crashed. The chancellor, John Healey, promises a “new age of industrialisation”, breaking with her era of industrial desertification. The social care system she blew into disconnected privatised fragments will become a national care service. Something new is waiting to be born.
Things happen fast. Only a year ago, the Labour party was on its knees in despair, thunderstruck to find Nigel Farage ruling the roost so soon after its landslide win, with Reform UK 12 percentage points ahead of Labour’s dismal 22%. Farage was the most popular leader, with a 30% favourability rating, compared with Keir Starmer’s -71%. When Burnham came to Liverpool last year he had no seat, no prospect of a challenge and a numbskull national executive committee bent on barring him, his charisma wasted.
Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist
