557. Can Burnham Really Deliver Britain’s Biggest Change in Forty Years?

**Alastair Campbell** (0:01)
Can Andy Burnham, in a single term, overcome problems that he says have been generations in the making? So we're into week two of the Burnham era, and the steady flow continues, whether big policy objectives, like reforming social care, or the smaller policy tweaks on rates, bus fares, electricity bills and the like. This new prime minister is clearly not lacking in energy, activity or ambition. Also, he's opened the door to Number 10 North, he's met with President Zelensky, and he's established a very different communication strategy to Kirstama with social media central to it. And when the New York Times fashion editor is sent to analyse your outfits, I think we can say you're making your mark. So far, so good then. And with Nigel Farage locked in a by-election battle with the bin, and Reform UK struggling with a host of financial scandals, Labour have moved ahead in the polls. But announcements are the easy part. Delivery is much harder. When you're promising the biggest change in 40 years, you're setting high expectations. Today, Andy Burnham has announced a whole new vision for education. Is this the sort of reform that could defy voters' cynicism and really change the country for the long term? That's the agenda for The Rest Is Politics today.

**Rory Stewart** (1:12)
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**Alastair Campbell** (3:18)
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics with me, Alastair Campbell.

**Rory Stewart** (3:20)
And with me, Rory Stewart.

**Alastair Campbell** (3:21)
He has sort of, I mean, I hate that cliché, hit the ground running, but he's kind of has hit the ground running. Every time you turn on the TV, Andy Burnham this, Andy Burnham that, and newspapers keep leading on Andy Burnham something new. What have you made of it so far?

**Rory Stewart** (3:33)
Two big things. I think one is, it's lovely to see somebody who's a much more fluent communicator. I watched the Laura Kunzberg Panorama interview and was very struck with the way that he dealt much more comfortably than Stammer would have done with challenges around his conversations with Trump and stuff. I mean, it's not rocket science, but Burnham has developed a much more easy way of sitting in his chair and not sounding like he's sort of reading from a teleprompter. So I think that's great. I think that the bigger issue, I suppose, and he can get a long way on communication. I think a lot of the people that we've interviewed and we've liked on leading have just been great communicators and let's hope that he's able to get a bit of that energy that we got from Iceland or we got from Greece or we got from Spain or we get from Canada. The second thing, I guess, is dealing with the more fundamental problems in the country, and maybe we've got to the time now that we want to really think about what the big changes will be, what the governing changes will be. So maybe this is a chance to talk about devolution, chance to talk about adult social care, chance to talk, I know you wanted to talk about vocational education, but the big policy changes that Burnham wants to bring, and maybe a little bit about what he isn't talking about yet. What struck you on the policy side?