The King in the North will not save us

Is the King of the North about to become prime minister? Maybe. Will he lead us out of the valley of darkness and into the promised land of milk and honey? I can’t see it.

Full disclosure: I know Andy well. He’s genuinely a nice bloke, and he’s a competent administrator. He is by far the best person to lead the Labour Party from amongst the contenders. And that’s the problem. 411 Labour MPs were returned at the General Election. And they’re having to bring back the king over the water to topple Starmer.

Can there really be no-one amongst the 400 who can deliver social, economic and environmental justice?

A broken party machine

In Majority‘s group chat, I proposed a thought experiment. Imagine I somehow became Labour leader tomorrow. Would I be able to deliver a democratic socialist programme? The overwhelming response was no. John McDonnell or Clive Lewis would fare no better.

The donors, the directorate, the corporate lobbyists who are now Labour MPs, would not allow it. They got a nosebleed when Jeremy Corbyn proposed ending tuition fees.

That was before the Starmer-McSweeney purges. What chance is there for grassroots socialists to organise inside the Labour Party to get socialists selected for parliament? Or Metro Mayors? Would Andy reverse the expulsions? Change the rules so the NEC can’t block or impose candidates on a factional basis? Neoliberalism is embedded too deeply inside Labour.

Which raises the question: will an Andy Burnham-led Labour government, with minister Wes Streeting, tax wealth and not work? Reverse NHS privatisation? Support the prosecution of Israel for genocide? Reintroduce sectoral collective bargaining? Create a publicly owned zero-carbon energy system? Break up the investment banks from the retail banks? End – not mitigate – child poverty? Will he choose to take on the billionaires? Make Meta, Twitter and TikTok responsible for their content? Implement the Leveson recommendations?

If not, it’s tinkering around the edges with better comms and a more charismatic front man.

Public control or public ownership?

Andy brought the buses under public control in Manchester. Note: control, not ownership. It was the Cameron government that brought in the 2017 Bus Services Act that enables franchising. It’s better than unregulated buses, for sure. But like rail nationalisation, the establishment are happy for rundown, unprofitable sectors to be taxpayer funded on risk-free contracts.

In his recent interview, he said he wanted water and energy under public control. Good. Let’s give him the benefit of the doubt and say he meant public ownership. But what route to public ownership of water? Bail out the shareholders, hand over £100 billion, and make the state take on the debts? Or do it without compensation – strict enforcement of Ofwat standards, force the share price to zero, and use the legal powers to hive off the assets into a debt-free public company?

After all, nationalisation is not always progressive. The National Coal Board was publicly owned throughout the miners’ strike.

An alternative to neoliberalism

I hear people say that stopping Reform is all that matters, and the Greens should stand aside. I have no problem being pragmatic. I worked cross-party for the good of the people of the North East. I worked closely with Andy on transport, devolution and standing up for the North during Covid. He was one of the few Labour politicians who publicly stood by me when the NEC stitched me up. On a personal level, I’d be delighted for him if he becomes prime minister.

I don’t believe a Reform government is nailed on in 2029. They’ve passed their high water mark, and are losing vote share. Personal scandals, bringing in Tories, and incompetence in local government is accumulating. Restore UK is likely to split their vote, too.

Trying to game the electoral system does not cut it for me. The problem’s not Andy. It’s Labour. A party that still has illegal war-starter Tony Blair as a member. Labour Together has not gone – it has simply been rebranded Think Labour.

What is needed is a credible alternative to neoliberalism. The Greens are not there quite yet, at least in the eyes of the public. But they are the closest we’ve got. And they’re winning.

The Green Party

My preferred option is for the Green Party to become more professional, more serious. Let’s fight and win on the economic arguments. That taxing wealth instead of work would increase public investment. Reversing wealth extraction from utility owners and private equity funds will lower bills. Making the case loud and clear that keeping kids in poverty and adults too ill to work is both a moral and an economic failure. That’s the direction of travel, and it’s starting to work. It’s where I’ll be putting my energies over coming months.

I’ve seen deep inside the Labour Party. There is no one in that cabinet who has any intention of challenging neoliberalism. Half of them are bought and paid for.

Labour MPs are saying the quiet part out loud. It’s not Starmer’s policies. It’s their poll ratings. They voted through Winter Fuel cuts. Voted to arrest peaceful anti-genocide protesters as terrorists. They only acted when their jobs were on the line. Keep out Reform? They’ve aped Reform!

We must abandon the mythology. Andy is not the King of the North who stands between us and the horde of white walkers. He’s one man operating within the confines of a hostile system. There’s no doubt he’s preferable to Starmer or Streeting. But limping centrism on life support is not enough. It’s time to run the UK in the interests of the people who do the work.

Featured image via the Canary