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Andy Burnham has pledged to “make this moment a circuit-breaker for Britain” in his first speech as Prime Minister. Speaking outside No.10 without notes or a lectern, Burnham said he would “bring forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years.” He added: “I know people at home are fed up with politics. I hear you, and I want to be honest with you, we have not been good enough and we need to be better. We will be." The Labour leader has so far announced that former Defence Secretary John Healey will be his Chancellor, and Ed Miliband will be his Foreign Secretary. Former Communications Director for Keir Starmer James Lyons looks back on our last PM, and reacts to Burnham's top team. #andyburnham #keirstarmer #ukpolitics #labour #breakingnews #lbc
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James Lyons is with us, former Downing Street Director of Communications
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Thanks very much indeed for coming into the studio this evening, James. I wonder what you make so far of the messaging from Team Burnham
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his positioning of particularly of politics as having failed people, and he is there as the politician to put it right
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Well, I think that will resonate with an awful lot of people, including many of your callers, Tom
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I mean, I don't think anyone, very few people in this country think that politics has been knocking out of the park in recent years
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Look, I thought what we saw today with that speech in Downing Street
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was someone who was confident, he was fluent, he was optimistic. And you will remember as a great student of political history
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that Margaret Thatcher once said, Ronnie Reagan, he was engaged in the great cause of cheering us all up
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And there is a sense of that about him, actually. And he's just very comfortable in his own skin
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isn't he? He looked like he was happy and wanted to be there. And I have to say, that's not always the case with some
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previous incumbents. Do you include Keir Starmer in that? Well, I don't think my
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old boss always looked like he was enjoying it. No. And, you know, he didn't
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he had many fine qualities but he didn't always have that kind of easy, almost
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cheeky charm that Andy Burnham has. I do think people want to see politicians enjoying the job
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You know, it's not always going to be enjoyable. It's incredibly difficult. But I do think people want to see some of that, don't they
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People take their cue from that. Absolutely. And, you know, I bumped into one of Andy's very, very long-serving aides
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I used to know back when Andy was last in Westminster, he was enjoying a pint outside the Marcus of Granbury around the corner just now
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And he said, you know, what we need to do is we just need to lift the country. I mean, to lift the country
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And I was very, very struck by that. Of course, you've got to level with people about the realities of the situation
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Of course there are going to be difficult choices in times ahead But you got to give that sense that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and that that light is not an oncoming train Stay there James Let go back live to Downing Street to Bethany
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where we have another person walking in that big black door. Bethany
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Yes, Pat McFadden has just gone into Downing Street, the current Work and Pension Secretary
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Like Healy, a long-time Labour cabinet member, shadow cabinet member, He has gone in
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The only job, as a reminder, we have had confirmed is John Healy for Chancellor
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We are still waiting to hear about those other big jobs, about Foreign Secretary, Home Secretary and Chief Secretary to the Prime Minister
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Pat McFadden going into Downing Street. I don't know how many reshuffles you were involved in, James
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but in the big ones that I was in Downing Street for, if you have too many people queuing up at the same time waiting for jobs
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it starts to get a little bit awkward about where you put them all Because there are some very, at times, really difficult conversations with the prime minister and the person that they're trying to appoint
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If they don't want the job or they don't want to get on board with this particular idea, it all starts to get pretty complicated
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Yeah. Well, can I just say that I think there's no more reassuring sight in British politics than Pat McFadden walking to number 10
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He is the grown ups grown up. And I think he's done an absolutely magnificent job of putting the jigsaw back together again on welfare reform after the revolt, which, you know, let's face it
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if the decision to cut pensioners' winter fuel payments was the original sin of the Keir Starmer government
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it was the welfare revolt that plunged the Prime Minister into political purgatory
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And what we've seen is Pat and his team slowly, steadily and methodically making the Labour case
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the Labour case for getting people back into work. And, yeah, I hope he's able to continue that work
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or is promoted or whatever else. Going back to that welfare reform rebellion, which I think you're right, was sort of a wake-up call to how difficult this was going to be for Keir Starmer, even with such a massive majority
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Was there an awareness going into that within Number 10 that this was going to be really tricky
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Or was the information not there to suggest this was going to be At what point did the Prime Minister go ooh we got a problem I think the lights were flashing red on the dashboard it fair to say
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There was a divergence of views about what you did about that
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Some people felt we should pull stumps early, some people felt we should put the pedal to the metal
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and if they didn't like it, giving it back to them to vote on again and again and again
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In the end, we fell between those two stools and really the Prime Minister's credibility never recovered
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Do you agree with Morgan McSweeney that they didn't have a plan
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He didn't have a plan. 100% didn't have a plan. So I was involved in writing the election manifesto
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That was largely a de-risking exercise and trying to take some of the policy and turn it into something a little bit more fluent
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But everyone assumed there was a secret plan and it turned out that there wasn't
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And you can tell there definitely wasn't a plan because, again, when I came into Downing Street after a difficult first two or three months for the government to try and help stabilise the ship, I was charged with sitting down with the policy unit and some cabinet ministers and writing one, which was published as The Plan for Change
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And that only came out in the December. I mean, listen, both of us have, I guess, scars on our back from working behind that door
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It is an incredibly difficult place to do the job. But even from the outside looking in during the election campaign, it was just so blindingly obvious that the the raise on debt for the government of economic growth hadn't been thought through
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There was nothing there, even with the conservatives planned 20 billion cuts to the economy
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That's not necessarily the black hole that Rachel said she found, but there were planned cuts to the various departmental budgets at the last conservative budget
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And the answer that you got from various ministers about what they were going to do about it was, oh, don't worry, growth
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And it was kind of pathetic. Well, what I would say is, given the task that Keir Starmer and his team were presented with when he became Labour leader
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it is understandable that enormous amount of focus and attention went on turning the Labour Party around and making it electoral And you got to remember that nobody thought he could win an election never mind a majority when he became Labour leader And he did in one parliamentary term
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what it took Neil Kinnock and Tony Blair, three parliamentary terms to achieve
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So he deserves huge credit for that. The problem is, it always felt like that was the mission
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That was the project. And that kind of ended the moment he walked through the black door
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What advice then would you be offering Andy Burnham's close team or Andy Burnham himself about the first few days really
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let alone the first hundred days? Well, I mean, he needs to, as he is, crack on, right
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So there's been a lot of claims that it's just fives. Today he's come out with a policy on rough sleeping
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which I think is going to be very popular. It's very popular in the Labour Party but I think it's very popular more widely
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because rough sleeping isn't just a kind of scar on the conscience of this country
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It's the scar on the face of lots of communities up and down this country as well. And, you know, he's going to hit the ground running tomorrow
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with announcements around the cost of living, which we all know is the number one priority for the public
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So I think do exactly what he's doing. Get out there. Define yourself as early as you can
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Get some policies out there as well as some vibes. But also bold. Do something, you know, it's very easy
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Gosh, I remember sitting in a cabinet meeting in 2017 where they said we're going to end rough sleeping
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and it never quite happened or, you know, the wrong incentives were brought in. If you just stand there and say I'm going to do this
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and it actually happens, what we mean by ending rough sleeping, how is that success measured
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At least you're signalling that you do have some power to do anything because I think a lot of people look at politics at the moment
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and think they're all hopeless because nothing seems to happen. Yeah, I mean, that is the problem
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Delivery is necessary, but it isn't sufficient. So you've got to deliver, but you've got to tell a story
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about what you're doing at the same time. And look, the rough sleeping thing has gone down very well
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but it is the cost of living and whether or not people feel better off
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at the next general election that is going to determine Andy Burnham's electoral fate
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Fancy going back in? No, thank you very much. How about you? Absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever
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Very good to see you. Thank you for coming in. James Lyon, former Downing Street Director of Communications
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