Burnham think tank association raises questions

As attention on prospective Labour leader (and, for that matter, prospective Labour MP) Andy Burnham mounts, caution is necessary. Whilst Burnham may currently appear to be the messiah in comparison to the dreadful Keir Starmer, he may well just be a very naughty boy.

Burnham’s association with right-wing think tank the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) suggests that Burnham’s politics may not be all that radical.

Andy Burnham and the Centre for Social Justice

Epitome of ‘centrist dad’ vibes – Burnham might seem to Labour MPs scrabbling to salvage the sinking Labour Party ship as some sort of liberal saviour. Alas, to the rest of us – that just means more of the same. Burnham is a continuity candidate in marginally more progressive-looking clothing (if you can even call it that).

And nothing says that better than Burnham’s role for the shady dark money think tank. Since 2023, the former Labour cabinet minister and Greater Manchester Mayor has been a ‘commissioner’ for the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ).

An edgy-sounding name for sure. You’d think it’s a radical organisation working to dismantle systems of oppression. Not so.

The CSJ is the brainchild of ex-DWP ‘grim reaper’ Iain Duncan Smith – and has a chequered history to match its infamous founder.

It brands itself ‘centre right’: a convenient liberal euphemism for right wing. Like all ‘centre right’ misnomers, it oozes the paternalistic urge to paint right-wing fiscal conservative policy as ‘mature’, natural end-point pragmatism as opposed to the capitalist sham it really is.

The think tank is best-known for its role – alongside its founder IDS – as a key architect of Universal Credit. To say that’s been a veritable shitshow would be an understatement.

The forced ‘managed migration’ from old-style benefits has stripped hundreds of thousands of their vital social security. It also left many more much worse off.

But the CSJ isn’t worried about a small matter like shunting hundreds of thousands into destitution. And it hasn’t exactly been shy about its role shaping UC either – treating it like its headline success story.

Labour Party in bed with the CSJ

A right-wing lobby group doesn’t change its stripes. Because where cruel welfare cuts are concerned, that’s only the start. The brilliant LurgeeLiz on X has been collecting the receipts – and the Canary has too.

We previously exposed how the CSJ had been lobbying the Labour Party with its machinations for punching down on poor and disabled people.

And of course, this Labour government has listened. Enter its massively-trumpeted and overblown WorkWell scheme.

WorkWell’s a born and bred Mancunian work programme. Its flop of a precursor scheme started life in the city. And Burnham was all too pleased to host one of the newer glorified work programme’s pilots.

As the Canary’s Rachel Charlton-Dailey previously noted however:

it’s a scheme ran by the DWP where instead of supporting disabled people who can’t work they’ll pass you around to other services.

And that about sums it up: palming people off to pre-existing services. It’s a voluntary scheme, but as Charlton-Dailey also highlighted, there’s no way of knowing:

how many disabled people were forced into this “voluntary” support, despite the DWP knowing they couldn’t work. And who were made to go through the humiliating rigmarole of applying for jobs they’d never be hired for.

One thing we do know, as LurgeeLiz incisively pointed out, is that the scheme targeted disabled people literally in hospital:

Andy Burnham:

Commissioner for the Centre for Social Justice

Said there are too many people on "sickness" benefits (see clip)

Spearheads the Manchester "WorkWell" programme which has seen a total of 902 ill & disabled people 'helped' with work for £7m, some were in hospital pic.twitter.com/2b2rW0o0Fa

— LurgeeLiz (@LurgeeLife) May 15, 2026

When it comes down to it then, Burnham’s the Labour right’s favourite ‘work as a health outcome’ posterboy.

Spearheading welfare cuts

And where was the CSJ when Labour was attacking Personal Independence Payment (PIP) and slashing Universal Credit’s health element in half? Not kicking up a fuss, that’s for sure.

Funny, for a think tank that says its whole vision is to “influence policies” to do:

all it can to address the root causes of poverty.

Instead, the CSJ was telling ministers ahead of the cuts how “conditionality has become a dirty word” and, you guessed it, called for more conditionality for disabled claimants.

Low and behold, the CSJ thinks kicking disabled people off benefits is a great idea:

Andy Burnham's Centre for Social Justice wants to remove PIP & LCWRA from 1.1m claimants – those currently assessed as too ill or disabled to work

But simultaneously only expects 10% (110,000) to move into work

So enforced poverty on ~1 million chronically ill & disabled people pic.twitter.com/DRDeWb8ZLc

— LurgeeLiz (@LurgeeLife) May 19, 2026

All the while, Burnham has remained a CSJ commissioner, naturally.

More of the same

At the end of the day, the fact that Burnham rubs shoulders with a think tank that Tory austerity acolyte IDS set in motion tells you a lot about the kind of Labour leader – and prime minister – he would be.

Publicly, Burnham has opposed the disability benefit cuts. However, some are wary that he’ll be a shameless turncoat in power – because the Labour right certainly have form on this:

Considering how quickly and thoroughly every Labour MP betrayed disabled people, I am just assuming Burnham will be exactly the same.

— Spin Decoders (@leith1076) May 14, 2026

And Burnham himself is no stranger to bottling it on opposing benefit cuts either:

Just been reminded Andy Burnham said he’d abstain on Iain Duncan Smith’s Welfare Reform and Work Bill having previously said he’d vote against it. This u-turning is a thing with Labour MPs as we see time and time again.

— Dr Jay Watts (@Shrink_at_Large) September 13, 2025

This was, unironically, Iain Duncan Smith’s vile programme of welfare cuts. Who ever would have guessed the liberal sell-out who’d later join IDS’s diabolical dark money group would put party ‘unity’ over protecting poor and disabled people from Tory austerity?

Featured image via Getty/Ian Forsyth