Will Starmer’s Liz Truss jibe at Andy Burnham save his leadership?

Starmer showed uncharacteristic ruthlessness in claiming Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s economic policies would lead to a similar disaster to those of former Tory PM Liz Truss. Whether the prime minister can see off the challenge to his authority from Burnham will be decided at the forthcoming Labour conference, writes Simon Walters

It was as if SpongeBob SquarePants suddenly morphed into Terminator 2. Keir Starmer’s take down of his would-be Labour assassin Andy Burnham, comparing him to Liz Truss, was as unexpected as that.

Until now Starmer has at times acted like a political version of SpongeBob, the square headed cartoon character memorably described as a hopelessly optimistic and resilient sea sponge.

He even looks rather like him.

Which is why his blistering attack on Manchester Mayor Burnham was such a shock.

You can hardly blame mild mannered Starmer for lashing out. For weeks now, Burnham has been busy behind the scenes trying to whip up support for a leadership campaign. In recent days, he has finally come out in the open, declaring, in a shameless display of humblebraggjng, that Labour MPs are queuing up to beg him to oust Starmer.

Someone should have grabbed Andy Burnham by the lapels of his Zelensky-style open-neck black shirt and whispered through his arty black quiff: if you want to create a convincing leadership narrative follow the first rule of story telling, show don’t tell (Getty Images)

If these MPs see Andy as some kind of Manc Messiah, why have virtually none of them tied their colours to his mast in public? Presumably the phone conversations have gone something like this: Unnamed MP: “Hi Andy, I think you are the best thing since sliced bread and I’d do anything to see you replace hopeless Starmer.” Andy: “Thanks mate, will you say that in public?” Unnamed MP : “Er, no I’d rather not.”

Something doesn’t stack up.

In the absence of any meaningful public declarations of support, Burnham has resorted to announcing himself that he is the best thing since sliced bread. Anyone with half a loaf can see that is not just unconvincing and undignified, it is desperate bordering on pathetic. Someone should have grabbed Burnham by the lapels of his Zelensky-style open-neck black shirt and whispered through his arty black quiff: if you want to create a convincing leadership narrative follow the first rule of story telling, show don’t tell.

Just as disingenuous was his claim that he only declared his leadership ambition because a journalist asked him and he wanted to be honest. An honest politician? Whatever next. His two ‘I wannabe leader’ interventions, one in the form of a fawning profile in the Labour Left ‘Bible’ The New Statesman, the other an interview in the Tory supporting Daily Telegraph were carefully chosen to cause maximum impact across the political spectrum.

And they were timed with lethal precision to cause maximum trouble for Starmer on the eve of the Labour Party conference when he had been hoping to rally the party faithful after a disastrous spell which has seen him lose Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson and most of his Downing St communications team. Burnham is right about one thing: Labour MPs fear they are heading for a disastrous defeat under Starmer at the next election. But few have any confidence that anyone else would do much better, including Burnham.

In purely practical terms he cannot challenge Starmer until he gets a Commons seat. That hurdle could be removed if, as is rumoured, a friendly Labour MP resigned, allowing Burnham to stand in a by-election. But it is fraught with danger. On their current respective polling ratings, Reform could cause an upset even in Labour’s biggest strongholds. In a rare act of decisiveness, Starmer has decided he is not going to sit and do nothing while Burnham rattles his cage ever more loudly.

He has seized on what he clearly believes is a major error by Burnham, who has already made a hash of two previous Labour leadership bids: Burnham’s blithe assertion that under him Labour should stop “being in hock to the bond markets” and go on a multi-billion pound spending spree. His rash utterance caused immediate City jitters, sparking fears that a Burnham premiership could lead to a repeat of the disastrous reckless economic policies of Liz Truss. Truss is derided by most voters, none more so than Labour voters, whom for some she has replaced Margaret Thatcher as their number one hate figure.

Which is why Starmer threw his natural caution to the wind, accusing Burnham of apeing Truss. He is hoping it will stop the Burnham bandwagon in its tracks. We will see whether it has at the Labour conference in Burnham’s home city of Liverpool. Some of Starmer’s allies have compared his task of rebuilding the Party after the Corbyn years as similar to former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, who battled to rid it of Left wing extremists. Kinnock’s finest hour was at the 1985 Labour conference when he famously faced down Militant Tendency leader, rabble rousing Liverpudlian Derek Hatton. Forty years, almost to the day, Starmer is hoping this year’s conference will see off the threat from another opportunistic and charismatic Liverpudlian, Andy Burnham.