Burnham’s Media Machine and West Bank Settler Impunity

Alastair Campbell (0:00)

What is the thinking behind Andy Burnham's communications strategy? Is it working? Will it keep working through the very challenging times as well as this honeymoon period he's living through now? Whether it's ranking pub snacks or collaborating with content creators known as bus anti, Burnham's clear intent to reach different demographics in new ways has already led to him being called by some of the TikTok Prime Minister.

The new Prime Minister is certainly communicating very differently to the last one. It's a strategy relying a lot less on the Westminster lobby and a lot more on social media, TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram. Although he's not averse to a long chat on the podcast either and we're hoping he'll be on this one very soon. But in the end, while strong communications is a huge advantage to any politician in the modern media age, isn't it true that any prime minister ultimately will be judged on how they handle the really big challenges?

Rory Stewart (1:01)

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Alastair Campbell (3:08)

Welcome to The Rest Is Politics Question Time with me, Alastair Campbell.

Rory Stewart (3:11)

And me, Rory Stewart.

Alastair Campbell (3:12)

And Rory, we're going to talk about Andy Burnham, his communication strategy. We're going to talk about settler violence in the West Bank.

So let's get going. Where do we want to start?

Rory Stewart (3:22)

So much interesting and important stuff to get into. And I think we really need to talk about what's happening in the West Bank, which is under reported and incredibly significant. But before we do that, we have a question from Avon Perryman from Winchester. Where is the line between communicating effectively on social media and becoming a semi-influencer? Do we really need to see Burnham ranking pub snacks or talking about vintage football shirts when there are so many real problems facing the country? I just want to hand that to you with two brief things. Firstly, of course, to remind the audience that you were Tony Blair's director of communication, so you understand better than anyone how a new prime minister comes in and organizes his communications. You did it very effectively, but you did it some time ago. And the second thing is maybe before you get into the analysis, can you tell us what you think he's actually doing? What's the sense of what's different about his strategy?

Alastair Campbell (4:13)

When I was thinking about this, we had lots and lots of questions about this in the last few weeks. And do you remember when we had Jeremy Hunt on the podcast, and he said that thing, which I've thought about a lot since, because I think he's right, and he said that, you know, you have to learn from the way Trump communicates. And that doesn't mean we all go around, you know, lying and intimidating and all the stuff that he does. But what he meant by that, and this is something that I think we'd accept Keir Starmer didn't necessarily do, is you've got to be in the conversation.