Andy Burnham with Labour MPs after his swearing-in at the Houses of Parliament, London, 22 June 2026. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham with Labour MPs after his swearing-in at the Houses of Parliament, London, 22 June 2026. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Opinion Andy Burnham It’s not the bond markets Andy Burnham should be afraid of. It’s his own MPs Aditya Chakrabortty To stay popular with the public – and his backbenchers – he’ll need to make big changes fast. That means changing the way the government borrows
A Labour leader arrives, shirt and smile ironed into place, in his hands a big idea. He has polished one slogan, prepped three anecdotes, memorised eight bullet points. He wants more cash for vital services, or workers to have a stake in their employers, or to take some utility into public control. Not so big an idea, really, but, right on cue, the attacks come from almost every side – breathless lobby reporters, sententious columnists, zombie Blairites . And they all agree on one fatal thing: the bond markets will never wear it.
The death sentence having been pronounced, all that remains for the politician’s proposal is a pauper’s funeral.
It happened to Ed Miliband and Jeremy Corbyn. Today, before he has even become leader, it’s happening to Andy Burnham .
Catch the news on any given day and gilt yields are the reason why Ed Miliband can never be chancellor , but Wes Streeting could be. They’re why people with disabilities should lose their income and Thames Water must stay in private hands.
Believe Westminster, and the bond vigilantes are the ever-present, always hovering threat to political stability. For every Labour bonehead telling bond investors to “fall into line”, there are Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves pleading to stay in Downing Street to keep the peace in financial markets. The message is clear: go too far and Britain becomes Greece, or the king of the north turns into Liz Truss .
Lovely scare stories, to be sure, but based on precious little evidence. The greatest threat to the stability of a Burnham government does not lie in bond markets but among his own Labour MPs on the backbenches behind him.
Consider this moment in politics. Whatever you think of Starmer and, as I might have mentioned, the man did not rank high in my estimation, he is not leaving No 10 because of Peter Mandelson or Gaza or welfare cuts, or any other moral or political failing. Just like Boris Johnson, he is getting kicked out by MPs fretting over approval ratings. They are thinking with their polls.
Starmer and Johnson were both judged incredible winners and MPs applauded their every clap line and mouthed their slogans. Then they were historic vote-losers and they were out.
Far from exceptions, these two are simply the most extreme examples of the rule of the past decade. David Cameron and Theresa May also had to stand at the lectern and each time, there to drum them out and size up their own chances, were our professionalised politicians. Forget about policy or political causes or party institutions or the health of our supposedly representative democracy; this lot were obsessing over focus groups and social media and their own job security.
In this era of liquid politics, ideology is just baggage and every constituent a stepping stone because all that matters is the direction in which loyalty and power flow. Today, Burnham is judged a winner and so everything goes his way. A man wh...