Andy Burnham, who will be prime minister this time next week, has apparently decided to spend part of the summer touring the UK. He wants to win over voters across the country by offering them a ‘hopeful’ message. What planet do Burnham and his merry band of sycophants live on? Do they really think that spreading positivity is the cure for the country’s many ills? Please, Andy, spare us. Life is already tough enough as it is.

The Burnham tour will apparently focus on Labour ‘danger zones’ (it may come as news to him that the entire country outside his Greater Manchester bastion is an unsafe space for Labour right now) where the party has been losing support to Reform. Other areas being prioritised in this madcap political propaganda exercise include Aberdeen, where Labour’s North Sea oil and gas policy has led to a haemorrhage in support.

Burnham is also expected to visit so-called ‘left behind’ areas where voters have seen little in the way of the change promised by Keir Starmer in the 2024 general election. He will also target regions in the south of England and Wales during his public walkabout, scheduled to take place during the second half of the Westminster summer recess. It has been described by Labour insiders as the ‘don’t look back in anger tour’, helping to reset relationships with voters using an upbeat message, intended as the opposite to Keir Starmer’s early days in office which were filled with doom and gloom about the mess inherited from the Conservatives. As if. It is not happy-clappy stuff that voters want. What people actually crave from their political leaders is competence, ideas and concrete help to make their lives better. On all this, and more, Burnham remains a blank sheet. No amount of carefully orchestrated political ‘meet and greets’ can disguise this.

What people actually crave from their political leaders is competence, ideas and concrete help to make their lives better

It is all rather depressingly revealing of the North Korean levels of mass hysteria that exist in Labour circles about Burnham. All he has to do is pop up on some street corner and the masses will flock to kiss his hand, all grievances forgotten. It also happens to be deeply patronising and offensive. ‘There are really difficult conversations to be had with people and communities across the country and he’ll go out and have those,’ one source told the Guardian. The idea of Burnham, who radiates a desire to be liked above all else, having a difficult conversation with anyone about anything is certainly a novel idea.

The other obvious problem is that few people outside Burnham’s beloved northwest know who he is or what he stands for, and even fewer care. There are better things to be doing during the summer holidays than standing in line for a selfie with the latest politician to take a turn on the prime ministerial carousel. Burnham is in danger of mistaking his rhapsodic reception in the streets of Makerfield during the recent by-election as indicative of some wider love and affection for him among voters. In reality, voters are angry and despairing of Labour’s first two years in office

Burnham’s apparent desire to meet people to talk about the issues that matter most is also in marked contrast to his determined efforts to avoid being confronted and questioned by journalists. This has meant that, even now, voters are no wiser about his actual policies – just days before he enters Downing Street.

This ‘meeting the voters’ stunt is a cynical smoke and mirrors exercise. It is meant to disguise the uncomfortable truth that Burnham has yet to be clear about what he wants to do in power. There has been no ‘battle of ideas’, no leadership contest and little in the way of democratic scrutiny or accountability. Our new prime minister should abandon his lifetime habit of being all things to all people. His time this summer would be better spent getting his feet behind the desk in No. 10, working out what he actually believes in terms of politics and policies, and how he plans to go about implementing his ideas. He comes into office woefully under-prepared for the challenges that lie ahead. Now is not the time to be touring the country in a misguided political vanity exercise.