Burnham opens Labour conference with call to move Britain beyond Brexit drift

Andy Burnham opens Labour's annual conference in Liverpool promising to restore hope after years of Brexit-era drift. His upbeat reset faces an early test from rising energy costs, fiscal strain and unresolved policy divides.

In Short

• Labour meets hopeful yet wary as conflict pushes energy costs higher
• Treasury chief John Healey unveils the first budget on October 28
• Burnham faces tricky calls on North Sea drilling and immigration rules

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham will open Labour's annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday after two months in office, promising to move Britain beyond a decade of political and economic upheaval since Brexit. The conference comes at a time when Labour is encouraged by an early improvement in its fortunes under Burnham, but remains uneasy about rising economic pressure linked to conflict in the Middle East.

Burnham, the UK's seventh prime minister since the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, said the message of his keynote speech on Tuesday would be: "It's time for Britain to have hope again." As he arrived in Liverpool on Saturday, he said: "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." The message is aimed both at the public and at a centre-left party that is hopeful but nervous.

Britain's main political parties hold their conferences in September and October, using them to set the political tone for the year ahead. Labour's gathering last year was marked by concern over Prime Minister Keir Starmer's deep unpopularity, little more than a year after his landslide election win, and the rise of the anti-immigration Reform UK. Burnham, then mayor of Greater Manchester, was closely watched in Liverpool as talk grew that he might challenge Starmer. Months later, Starmer was forced out and Burnham replaced him as party leader and prime minister in July. Labour is now seeing a "Burnham bounce", helped by his upbeat approach and by moves such as cutting tax on electricity bills and capping bus fares. Reform, meanwhile, is facing parliamentary and police investigations into its finances, though it recently received 72 million pounds (USD 95 million) from two cryptocurrency billionaires.

Burnham has already set out priorities including giving more power to local leaders to deliver "good growth in every post code" and reforming Britain's privatised utilities, especially the water network. Even so, he faces difficult choices, including whether to approve new oil drilling in the North Sea, which is opposed by environmentalists but backed by trade unions, and criticism over plans agreed under Starmer to make it harder for immigrants to settle permanently in Britain. The next general election does not have to be held until 2029, but Labour's revival has led to speculation about an early poll. Burnham has denied that. "All of this speculation on an early election, I can knock that dead," he told ITV on Friday.

Despite the improved mood, Burnham must still deal with an economy under strain. He is under pressure to explain how his government will respond to turbulence caused by the on-off US-Iran war, which has severely restricted the movement of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury chief John Healey is due to present the government's first budget on October 28, with rising energy prices adding to the cost-of-living squeeze. Britain also needs to find more money for defence spending in response to threats from Russia, raising the prospect of tax rises, spending cuts or both. Burnham has said he wants closer ties with the European Union, which could ease some Brexit trade barriers, but it is not clear how far he will go. Under Starmer, Labour won the 2024 election on a promise not to seek to rejoin the EU or enter its single market for goods, services and employment. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair said last week that the UK and EU should begin negotiations "where everything is on the table". Burnham has said that is a discussion for another time, while an EU-UK reset summit first expected in July has slipped to November at the earliest because of differences over the bloc's "made in Europe" rules, which Britain says would hurt British producers.

Rob Ford, a political science professor at the University of Manchester, said Burnham's challenge is to win over "a sceptical electorate" that wants change while working within "a very difficult economic and fiscal situation". In short, Ford asked: "How do you serve people a bowl of cold porridge and convince them it's a pepperoni pizza?" He said Burnham has so far held on to his image as an optimist and an effective communicator, unlike Starmer, who quickly lost public goodwill, but added that the harder test is still to come. "The bills are still going to land on the doormat," Ford said. "He's going to have to be the prime minister who can sell the average voter on, Yes, that is indeed a bowl of cold porridge in front of you, but it will get better."

With PTI Inputs

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