Whirlwind or flat calm? Who is shaping your plans?

Just over two years ago, on 4 July 2024, Sir Keir Starmer led the Labour Party to a decisive general election victory. After 14 years in opposition, the party won 411 seats and a large parliamentary majority, giving him a clear mandate to govern. Yet the honeymoon period was incredibly brief. By the autumn, pressure was already building, and by the summer of 2026 he had stepped aside as Prime Minister.

During much of that same period, Andy Burnham appeared to be flourishing away from Westminster. As Mayor of Greater Manchester from 2017, he had built a strong profile, not least during the pandemic, when he was widely dubbed the “King of the North”. A former MP and minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he had seemed to find a different kind of political voice outside the Westminster bubble.

Then everything changed with remarkable speed. Having left Parliament in 2017, Burnham returned to the Commons only after winning the Makerfield by-election on 18 June. Within weeks he was Labour leader, elected unopposed after securing overwhelming support from Labour MPs, and on 20 July he became Prime Minister. Whatever this new season in UK politics holds, there is no doubt that it arrived in a whirlwind.