British Prime Minister Andy Burnham faces a huge challenge and a great opportunity — to provide an example during the coming months and years for the many leaders who are fiddling while their countries, and the world, burn.
Burnham can, like so many politicians do, use the word “hope” incessantly in speeches and yet do nothing to fulfil that hope. Or he can use the many crises that beset his country and its partners, such as South Africa, to lead with purpose and courage and bring about positive change.
Burnham is the UK’s seventh prime minister in a decade. He walked into 10 Downing Street this week with the failure, disgrace and ignominy of his recent predecessors ringing in his ears while he sought to set out his agenda.
Unlike many others, however, Burnham seems to understand that people are gatvol.
“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,” he said.
Burnham takes over after Keir Starmer’s two-year premiership, which initially promised major change for the UK and a reset of relations with Africa. What it delivered was dithering, frustration and, ultimately, stasis. Starmer had brought 14 years of Conservative Party rule to a grinding halt with a stunning landslide victory in July 2024. Labour won 411 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons.
“Change begins now, and it feels good!” Starmer proclaimed in his victory speech.
Now he has been prematurely ousted by his comrades after a lacklustre, directionless stint in office. From migration to relations with the US, Starmer just never seemed to have a firm position or policy on any issue. He seemed satisfied to have merely moved into No 10. Once there, he was unsure of how to tackle the difficult work of wielding power positively and changing lives — or perhaps he was just not interested.
It was almost as if Starmer, studying the failures of his predecessors, was trapped in the headlights, fearful of taking any decisive action lest he, too, got the boot. His two years reminded one of Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency: a nice fellow, but one who fails to take charge of a broken country, always apologetically taking tentative steps instead of making bold moves.
In the UK, the Labour Party put up with Starmer’s dithering for only two years. In South Africa, Ramaphosa still hangs on while the stench of the state capture years continues to defile public life.
Burnham has an incentive to move fast. The UK economy is stagnant. As The Economist bemoaned recently: “Look at the many signs of Britain’s decline. Growth is feeble and public debt has reached 95% of GDP. Public services are stuttering and the armed forces are depleted. The streets are grubby and the electorate is in a sulphurous mood. The BBC has even cancelled the Doctor Who Christmas special.”
This is the crux for politicians in Britain, South Africa, Botswana, and so many other countries. It’s the economy, stupid. People want to see change. They don’t want the sort of fiddling that Ramaphosa has been engaging in these past eight years. Economies are in crisis, and they want leaders to recognise that old political maxim: never let a good crisis go to waste.
In the absence of a crisis, leaders need to show clear intent anyway. Many of us deride US President Donald Trump, but in his second term he issued an unprecedented 147 executive orders in his first 100 days, almost as many as Joe Biden did in his entire four-year term. He promised change, and, like it or not, he has implemented it.
Burnham declared on Monday: “Let us make this the moment when Britain starts to believe again, the moment we bring back hope.”
All six of his predecessors of the past 10 years spoke of hope. Burnham can make the world believe in politics again by following up with clear policy and vigorous implementation.
It would set a great example for a world in which there is too much political grandstanding and too little action.