If there is a day when it is legitimate to compare politics with football, it is today. England has not won the world championship since 1966, and it has not had a good prime minister for decades. If you ask the conservatives, since Margaret Thatcher in the eighties. If you ask the centrist Labour, since Tony Blair in the nineties. And if you ask the left-wing Labour, you have to go much further back, to Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, or even Clement Attlee, creator of the welfare state.
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Italian Palermo had nine coaches in one season, Argentine Atlético Platense eight, and Atlético de Madrid six. The United Kingdom is in that same league, with its fifth prime minister in four years and seventh in a decade, none of whom have managed to get the country out of the economic, emotional, and self-esteem hole it has been in since the 2008 financial crisis.
Now it has rolled the dice again in the great casino of politics, to see if Andy Burnham brings more luck than Keir Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson, Theresa May, David Cameron, Gordon Brown… A long list of failed prime ministers, of all ideologies and personalities, overwhelmed by structural problems (excessive debt, low productivity and investment, addiction to subsidies, lack of growth, high taxes, monumental bureaucracy…) that none have managed to overcome. Now the country tries its luck with a new leader, knowing that systemic problems persist, but hoping he will develop from the bench enough chemistry to make a team beyond individualities and egos. Like Spain in the World Cup.
British political transitions are ruthless, like the entries of Leandro Paredes or Enzo Fernández in Sunday’s final. Early in the morning, Keir Starmer made a brief farewell speech that no one paid the slightest attention to (politics is cruel to losers, just like football), moved to Buckingham Palace to officially resign, and crossed paths with Andy Burnham, who received from the monarch the mandate to form a government. All in a flash, as if it were the simplest thing in the world. A moving truck arrived to take one’s things, and another showed up at 10 Downing Street with the other’s furniture (Theresa May brought her own sofas because she liked them).
For Andy Burnham, this Monday was a day – like for the players of the Spanish national team – he will never forget: the image of gardeners and street sweepers preparing the outside of Downing Street to be immaculate, journalists gathered hours in advance, entering number 10 with his wife, the first security report on the dangers threatening the country, receiving the codes to launch nuclear missiles from submarines in case of war…
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Also less critical matters, such as the recommendation to always carry a black jacket and tie in case the king dies unexpectedly, the delivery of an encrypted mobile phone hacker-proof, and two fundamental warnings: that what he drinks in the office will be charged to the public treasury but what he consumes in the flat he will have to pay for, and that any damage to the furniture (beyond normal wear and tear) will be at his own expense. In other words, better that children do not jump on the sofa.
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One of the first decisions of a new British prime minister is which flat to live in, number 10 or the larger number 11, like most of his predecessors. And then, where to set up his office and place his advisors. From there, dozens of phone calls from foreign leaders to congratulate him, and in some cases already make claims, propose alliances, or present demands. Lack of experience in foreign policy is considered one of Andy Burnham’s weak points.
His first speech was a summarized and edited version of the one he gave on Friday when assuming Labour leadership, with the promise to “change the way things are done” and to reverse the neoliberal policies of the last forty years. He said his first measures will be aimed at reducing the cost of living and eliminating homelessness, and that in the coming days he will present a ten-year plan to address the endemic crisis the country suffers.
When it was time to leave protocols behind and get down to business, Burnham showed no mercy to members of the previous Cabinet, summarily executing most men and women loyal to Keir Starmer, starting with the Minister of Economy, Rachel Reeves. John Healey, who resigned as Defense Secretary for considering that the previous prime minister did not allocate enough money to that budget, in the context of the threat from Putin’s Russia and China, will be in charge of the State’s finances.
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The new Foreign Office Secretary and person in charge of relations with Donald Trump, Israel, and the European Union, replacing Yvette Cooper, is Ed Miliband, until now responsible for Energy, while Shabana Mahmood – author of controversial plans to combat immigration and hinder the settlement of political asylum seekers and refugees – will remain in charge of the Interior, a clear sign that Burnham will make no concessions in that delicate area and will maintain a hard line. David Lammy, deputy prime minister and responsible for Justice, is also left out of the running.
English coach Thomas Tuchel has been mercilessly criticized for an overly defensive strategy when England was winning against Argentina shortly before the semifinal ended, for mistakes both in the lineup and tactics. Andy Burnham is not willing to let the same happen to him, and says he wants to play offensively, end forty years of neoliberalism and the way politics is done. At first, he has raised the team’s morale, but from now on it is about getting results. The United Kingdom has been flirting with relegation for almost two decades, and the goal is to avoid it before starting to think about winning titles. And not to mention a world championship.
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