In this case, Starmer has been defeated by the simple truth that nothing has got better under him. In the two years since he won a stonking majority, he’s failed to deliver the central pledge of his campaign: change.

READ MORE: Andy Burnham wants to ‘tear up’ funding model for Scottish Parliament

Energy bills are still going up (along with everything else), wages aren’t catching up with inflation, and the economy is suffering from chronic anaemia worsened by, you guessed it, Brexit. Where many countries in the EU are projected to grow their economies reasonably (despite the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East), Starmer and his Chancellor Rachel Reeves were overjoyed at the International Monetary Fund upgrading the UK’s growth projections to a malnourished 1% for 2026. Even heavily-sanctioned Russia is expected to grow faster this year.

Many will see Starmer’s ultimate decision to step aside being purely down to his unpopularity with voters, leaving the 403 current Labour MPs worried about their jobs in a couple of years’ time. But unpopularity doesn’t come from nowhere. I remember speaking to voters on their doorsteps ahead of the Holyrood election in May. Labour are deeply unpopular, even with ardent Labour supporters. The current government has had two years of sleaze, failure, and U-turns – and the result is we’re all worse off now than we were even under the Tories.

To his credit, Starmer talked about moving the UK to a closer relationship with the European Union – a move which wouldn’t solve all of the UK’s economic woes, but would go some way in softening some of the damage created by Brexit. But one thing that would make the biggest difference is the one thing nobody in the UK Government is willing to even talk about: rejoining the EU. Full access, rights, privileges, and responsibilities.

READ MORE: Who is Al Carns, the Aberdeen-born MP who could challenge Andy Burnham

The next likely occupant of Downing Street, Andy Burnham, has said he does not want to rerun the Brexit debate and that the UK should not rejoin the EU. So I suppose we should all shut up; the King of the North of England has spoken.

Manchester-based Andy Burnham is, of course, opposed to Scottish independence (yawn) and strangely suggested Scots would be forced to drive on the other side of the road if we voted Yes in 2014. As Mayor of Greater Manchester, and despite being a vocal supporter of devolution, he staged a very public spat with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in 2021 over the Scottish Government’s ban on non-essential travel between Scotland and Manchester, at a time when Covid-19 cases in Burnham’s region were particularly high. He accused the Scottish Government of “hypocrisy” and “straightforward arrogance”, because a devolved administration exercised its powers over public health during a deadly pandemic.

If you think Starmer was no good for Scotland, just wait to see what an Andy Burnham premiership will be like.

READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn responds to ‘really disgraceful’ insult by Keir Starmer

The thing Starmer and Burnham have in common is their love for a good old flip-flop. Starmer’s entire time at Downing Street has been policy announcements followed by political fallout, followed by U-turns – be that on winter fuel payments, digital ID cards, or the two-child welfare cap. Burnham, it seems, attended the same Labour school of politics and has had several positions over the years on welfare, immigration, the NHS, EU membership, Jeremy Corbyn, and Tony Blair.

The UK is about to jettison one prime minister who lacks ideology or purpose for more of the same but with a slightly different accent.

With one Labour source over the weekend calling Burnham a “snivelling little rat” who would rather bring down the government than launch a leadership challenge, it does begin to appear the party’s in-fighting is set to continue for some time to come. And as Burnham lacks any big ideas for growth and prosperity across these islands, while simultaneously stubbornly refusing to talk about rejoining the EU, the forecast for his premiership is as bleak as Starmer’s.

If Burnham and his team don’t get serious about the UK’s place in Europe, with EU membership, economic prosperity, and bringing down the cost of living, they may well find the effects of Brexit could claim not just one more Prime Minister, but herald the end of the United Kingdom itself.

Lee Robb
via email

WATCH as Burnham back-peddles from being a sorta-but-not-really left-wing mayor to a prime minister who carries on with neo-liberal austerity to increase defence spending. The slightest whiff of power and all principles get chucked out the window.

Ross Kenny
via thenational.scot