Makerfield byelection

Hailed by Labour loyalists as the anti-Farage saviour, Burnham is really just 2024’s Starmer playbook running again – and falling for it once more will cost the left dearly, says Alan Story.

Andy Burnham trounced Reform in Makerfield and talked of change starting now. We’ve heard that one before. Before anyone gets carried away, there are inconvenient questions about Gaza, the bond markets, neoliberal economics and his New Labour past still waiting to be answered.

If Andy Burnham wins the Makerfield byelection and then replaces Keir Starmer as Labour leader, what will it mean for the left? Andrew Hedges considers the issues.

Tax campaigner and emeritus professor of accounting at Sheffield University Management School, Richard J Murphy, takes a look at Andy Burnham’s economic proposals and concludes that, rather than offering genuine economic change, they look like a softer version of the same old failed system.