He bounded into the packed rally, a spring-heeled intruder whose very presence announced a coup at last year’s Labour conference. And so it was. Andy Burnham spoke with ebullient self-confidence, yet without aggression or a barrage of insults. They tried to stop him with a bogus constitutional fix barring him from standing in Gorton and Denton. But those Labour hierarchs lost it without him. His subsequent Makerfield victory proved their mistake and opened the door right into No 10 without dispute.
At that standing-room-only rally on proportional representation he made a pitch-perfect noteless speech of personal passion about the failure of politics to connect, the decline of Westminster, the public’s distrust and the risk of this lost public belief in democracy. His hands were clean, he never benefited from the monster majority that first past the post had delivered so unfairly to Labour MPs: he wasn’t there at the last two elections. He quit out of despair, returning to repair.
Now here we are with an amendment to the representation of the people bill next week that calls for a national commission on the electoral system. A new YouGov poll finds that most Labour MPs support it, by 55% to 29%. Many new MPs sitting on wafer-thin majorities, who don’t know which system helps them personally, are voting purely on principle.
If, as expected, Burnham gives a clear signal that he intends to put electoral reform into the next manifesto to get public consent, if he confirms it needs a national commission ahead of the election, the amendment may be withdrawn with no needless division.
Meanwhile, the Labour conference next month is likely to vote strongly for a motion put up by Labour for a New Democracy, backed by many constituencies, calling for a national commission. In the face of all this groundswell, it would plainly be good for Burnham to get ahead of the mood and own the initiative.
This surge in support for proportional representation has been electrified in the past two years by the rise of Nigel Farage. The threat to democracy became brutally real when his party soared 10 points ahead, though thanks to Burnham he now roughly level pegs with Labour. What was once a constitutional nice-to-have reform, not a priority for Labour people, has become an essential safeguard in the face of real danger to democracy. The prospect of Farage winning a landslide on even less than Labour’s 34% that won 63% of the seats is unconscionable. In May’s council elections, some candidates won seats on little more than 20% of the vote. Imagine the rebellion if Farage became prime minister despite being by far the most disliked political leader. That would feel like the complete breakdown of democracy, where the “losers” would no longer peacefully consent to be ruled by “winners” who had been rejected by about three-quarters of voters.
Burnham’s magnetic performance at that rally set him on the path to leadership in a party now strongly supporting PR, with 66% of members backing it, and similar public approval. Tony Blair knew reform was necessary when he commissioned Roy Jenkins to draw up a system that compromised between absolute proportionality and keeping the constituency link. But he backed off when confronted with the bared teeth of old-time opponents, the unions plus John Prescott and Jack Straw. Keir Starmer plainly supported reform, but then backed off – goodness knows why – as in so many of his self-inflicted errors. It’s Burnham’s time.
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More puzzling is Burnham’s retreat on capping party donations. The bill will do away with the worst aspect, banning donations of more than £100,000 from foreign donors. But the unions have balked at having UK donations limited, and with it their sometimes threatening influence. Large political donations are a prime cause of corrosive public cynicism about Westminster politics for sale. Burnham’s authenticity is worth many more votes for Labour than can be bought with political advertising. Think again.
These have been precious days since Burnham walked through that black front door on 20 July, when you meet people everywhere expressing a rare optimism. Often those who are not natural Labour supporters will confess to unaccustomed hope. Burnham has lifted national spirits through small gestures that address people’s feelings of gloom. Keep that flame alight, don’t drop that Ming vase. Perversely that requires not caution, but boldness.
