Burnham promises to break with 40 years of failure. Now he has to mean it

Has there ever been this much anticipation around a Labour leader’s speech? Just ten weeks into the job, Andy Burnham walked on stage in Liverpool having promised to “make clear what I stand for and why”. He did that – and then some.

For a politician who has made telling it like it is his brand, this was a speech without the usual caveats. More of the same, he told the hall, is not good enough. Britain has been on the wrong path for a long time, with power held in too few hands. He would, he said, “make the break with the past 40 years”.

That is quite a promise from a Labour prime minister. Most of his recent predecessors set out to manage the settlement Thatcher built, not to dismantle it.

Where he comes from

It was also, at times, deeply personal. Burnham talked about the house his grandmother bought and where his family grew up. He spoke of “the great city of Liverpool”, of working-class aspiration and of a post-war Britain that backed people. And he named the feeling so many share now – that the powers that be pull against people instead of for them.

Ahead of the speech he wrote about his late father, Roy, “Liverpool born and bred”, and the values his parents passed on. Treat people as you would want to be treated. Put caring for others first. Fight for your community. Take on the hard issues rather than shying away from them.

His father’s experience of care sits right behind his determination to fix the system. “I saw how those who cared for him, with humanity and skill are trying to hold a system together that’s long been broken,” he said. “I’ve seen how the most vulnerable can lose everything just for seeking care.”

You would need a hard heart not to be moved by that. I was. Anyone who has watched someone they love go through the care system will recognise what he described – and so will the care workers holding it together on wages that come nowhere near reflecting the job.

The right targets

The policy ambition matched the rhetoric. He said he would not rest until there is no homelessness. He promised council homes and democratic control of our housing stock and said everyone should have a home. He called water a symbol of what has gone wrong with Britain.

On care, he promised a national care service, saying someone has to go through the pain barrier and rip the plaster off. He set all of it against the post-war settlement. Labour did it in 1945, he reminded the hall, and the 1980s broke it.

These are the right targets. Council housing, public control of water and a national care service are things the left – and much of the country – has argued for over many years. Hearing a prime minister say them from the conference stage matters.

The hard part

But Left Field has been sceptical about Burnham and one good speech does not change that. A conference speech is a statement of intent, not a programme. The detail – how, how fast and who pays – is still to come.

And the stakes are high. Almost every promise he made runs into someone powerful. The water companies and their shareholders will not give up control quietly. Developers and big landlords do very well out of the housing crisis he says he wants to end. A national care service means taking on private providers and finding serious money.

Then there is the City. A break with 40 years of economic orthodoxy means a fight with the financial sector and also with the commentators who will warn of market panic at every turn. Keir Starmer has already reached for that line, warning that Burnham’s approach risks Truss-style harm. Expect to hear it a lot more.

Nor are all his opponents outside the party. Plenty of Labour MPs built their careers inside the consensus Burnham now says he wants to end. Will he take them on too?

Where we go from here

The danger is not only that he fails. It is what failure would do. Burnham has told people who feel ignored that their voices matter and that “too hard” is no longer an excuse for not acting. If that turns into another round of broken promises, the disillusion will not stay on the left. Reform is waiting to feed on it.

That is why the job for the left now is neither to cheer nor to sneer. It is to hold him to what he said – and to build the pressure that makes it possible. Unions, tenants’ groups and care campaigners should take him at his word and start keeping score.

How many council homes, and by when? What happens to water ownership and on what timetable? When does a national care service get a start date and a budget?

Has he brought hope back? Quite possibly. But as a lifelong Everton fan, the prime minister will know that, often, it’s the hope that kills you.

Let’s hope not this time.