KEVIN MAGUIRE: 'Burnham must seize the moment on welfare and Europe to deliver the better Britain voters demand'

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OPINION: Kevin Maguire argues Andy Burnham is showing ambition and strength with his plans to tackle welfare reform and rebuild ties with Europe, and success could reshape Labour...

Grappling with welfare and Europe this week will be fresh-faced Andy Burnham coming of age as Prime Minister.

Poised today to match the 119 days of George Canning in 1827, with only eye-blink Liz Truss a briefer holder of the office, Burnham deserves credit for clutching prickly yet vital issues.

Keir Starmer was badly burned by trying to impose crude £5billion benefit cuts, whereas his successor may prove the beneficiary of considered plans by Blair-era Health Secretary Alan Milburn to switch spending to rescue young people from the scrapheap.

And the public mood on Europe has changed, with most people agreeing improved relations with near neighbours and trading partners is desirable after, as Burnham argued, Brexit did “more harm than good” after the Tory bad deal.

So the PM is pushing at open doors on welfare and Europe, though Burnham isn’t naive, which is why he’s aware he’s walking into a minefield where one misstep could blow up him and the Labour government. But doing nothing in either area carries a greater danger when popular everyday fixes on the likes of annoying noise and car park cowboys must be accompanied by big-ticket calls, even if the upsides may be years, a decade Milburn suggests, ahead.

One upside is no longer will critics be able to credibly paint Burnham as a caretaker, doing little by postponing until after a general election the things he really wants to sort like social care, a fairer voting system and, potentially, although I believe still unlikely, holding a referendum on rejoining the EU.

Burnham is confined by the inherited election manifesto but he and Labour consistently topping polls is a sign the country wants him to start rebuilding a better Britain immediately.

A PM making the political weather is refreshing after Starmer, Rishi Sunak, Truss, Boris Johnson at the end of his spell and Theresa May were battered by events.

Burnham may yet wilt, on welfare and Europe. Or incinerated by the living standards crisis fuelled by scorching energy…

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