Andy Burnham says his administration will be 'faster and bolder' than Keir Starmer's. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.

Eighteen months into the 24 he would last in No 10, Keir Starmer told MPs his biggest frustration was 'speed and the ability to get things done'. He believed that every past mistake led to 'successive governments putting in place another procedure or body or consultation to stop ourselves making a mistake again'.

Julian Gallie, a pollster at Merlin Strategy, says voters have been 'crying out for change for a decade', even if they sent inconsistent signals. The Brexit vote, the Corbyn surge of 2017, the Johnson majority of 2019 and the Tory rout of 2024 can all be seen as 'a desperate roll of the dice against a status quo'.

History suggests the most useful tool in shaking off stupor is an emergency. The classic case is Franklin Roosevelt's first 100 days. In 1933, bankruptcies, redundancies and collapsing banks enabled him to bulldoze 15 major laws through Congress.

The British war cabinet's sudden embrace of full political union with France in June 1940 is less remembered, as the emergency overtook that plan. In 2008, facing cashpoints running dry within hours, the UK government nationalised half the banking system. During the pandemic, new laws locked citizens in homes while bureaucracies improvised ways to pay people off work.

Starmer's colleagues hope the real reason Labour seemed marooned is more personal than institutional. Lisa Nandy predicts Burnham's administration will be 'faster and bolder'.

Starmer is the embodiment of what Francis Fukuyama calls 'procedural fetishism'. Fukuyama recently said Starmer 'just didn't want to take any of the risks'. In 2010, George Osborne talked up Britain going down the path of Greece and started cutting public expenditure 46 days after arriving at No 11.

Starmer, a very careful former lawyer, set missions, milestones and 'first steps' but never direction. He batted away questions about Israeli war crimes in Gaza by pointing to glacial international proceedings. He shunted responsibility for social care to an independent commission, asked to report back only in 2028. Its chair, Louise Casey, talks about having 'had a really good look at the 22 previous commissions, reviews, green papers and white papers'.

Burnham, who agitated for a comprehensive care service since his days as health secretary, vows to expend 'political capital' on a solution. But public finances make it rash to assume 'political will' will be enough. Every meaningful proposal for reform involves spending more.

Burnham recently voiced concerns about employers and pensioners hit by Rachel Reeves's two big tax rises, and hinted at easing off. The new PM will need to match his talent for making friends with a willingness to risk making enemies in raising cash. An early tax-raising budget could signal a plan with momentum; a nervous delay would foreshadow a failure to take the brakes off.

Burnham needs to take special care to avoid being caught in the snares of high office when it comes to the cost of living.