SMILING Andy Burnham has arrived for his first Labour conference as he promised a “new direction” for the UK – after ruling out an early election.
The Prime Minister – who also had his this week – today vowed to set out how he will deliver “good growth in every postcode, hope in every heart”.
Speaking on Saturday afternoon outside the Liverpool Experience Campus after posing for selfies with supporters, Mr Burnham said: “We’re going to make this a really important week where we set out a new direction for the country.
“We’ve had a decade since Brexit and it’s been a decade of too much drift, too much division, and we need to draw a line on that.”
He said his vision would leave “people able to have hope again that things will improve, that life will get better – and it will”.
It comes after he is determined not to put through the division of an early poll.
He can wait until the of 2029 before deciding to hold an election.
His remarks came as a mega-poll this week revealed Labour would lose their majority and be left with only 241 seats – short of the 326 seats needed.
When asked whether he was tempted to hold an early poll, he told West: “Not particularly. No, I’m not.
“And I see all the speculation and it just races ahead. And, you know, the media love to do that. No, no election any time soon.”
During his inaugural trip to the UN, Mr Burnham by Donald Trump – something banked as a win by No10.
While grabbed the headlines, Burnham’s team played up the he gave behind closed doors.
The White House was left in no doubt about Britain’s unwavering position on the islands, sources say.
But senior insiders also say the President subjected Burnham to his usual shellacking over illegal .
They say that Trump’s blistering criticism of countries failing to tackle migration during his main speech was primarily directed at Britain.
So while Burnham survived this time – he is after all only weeks into the job – failing to deliver could see the relationship sour.
Ahead of the conference, several Labour figures have acknowledged Burnham’s leadership has reinvigorated Labour following Sir Keir Starmer’s time in No 10.
Education Secretary Lucy Powell told the Guardian said the Government under Sir Keir had “lost sight of some of the politics and the purpose”.
Speaking to the BBC on Saturday, Lisa Nandy said: “I think the reason, frankly, that we had a change of leadership at the start of this year is because we all felt that people need to feel the change in their lives that we promised in 2024 much more quickly.”
Labour chair Bridget Phillipson would not be drawn when asked if Sir Keir’s two years of leadership had been a wasted opportunity for the party.
Instead, she told PA: “I’ll be forever grateful to Keir for taking us to one of the best election results in our history, and over the last two years we’ve made huge strides forward, whether it’s on better rights at work, on giving more protections for renters, and on tackling child poverty, and we are on course to lift the biggest number of children out of poverty in any parliament.
“That is extraordinary in terms of the scale and depth of the achievement. But there is more to do, and we know that the public are impatient for change, want to see it, and they want to feel it.
“That’s why Andy Burnham this week will be setting out how we step up that change, how we demonstrate that people can feel better off, can see that sense of change within their communities.
“But Andy Burnham builds on two years of a fantastic Labour Government, but with more to come.”
The Prime Minister faces unrest among senior Labour figures as the party heads into his first conference in power.
Peter Kyle – who served as Sir Keir’s business secretary – warned that Mr Burnham was not doing enough to boost economic growth.
Mr Kyle insisted he was not making a criticism of Mr Burnham, as he told the BBC the Government needed to make more short-term decisions to boost growth, like slowing the rollout of new workers’ rights.
Communities Secretary Angela Rayner meanwhile used a pre-conference interview with the Times to hit out at plans by her Cabinet colleague Shabana Mahmood which would lengthen foreign social care workers’ path to claiming permanent settlement.
The plans are also opposed by other figures across Labour, and could be the source of a row at the party conference.
