{"id":93276,"date":"2026-06-19T06:51:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/?p=93276"},"modified":"2026-06-19T06:51:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T05:51:23","slug":"everything-changed-and-nothing-changed-the-single-transferable-party-is-still-in-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/2026\/06\/19\/everything-changed-and-nothing-changed-the-single-transferable-party-is-still-in-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything changed, and nothing changed. The single transferable party is still in charge."},"content":{"rendered":"

The result is known.<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham won<\/a>\u00a0resoundingly<\/a>, increasing Labour\u2019s share of the vote in the Makerfield constituency by winning 55% <\/span>of the vote, leaving Reform trailing in second place with 35%, far below expectations.<\/p>\n

Restore did get more than 6% of the vote.<\/p>\n

In combination, the far right got 42% of the vote, Labour 55%, and the other major political parties under 4% between them.<\/p>\n

Nothing in this result changes the analysis that I provided<\/a> yesterday. The Burnham effect increased the Labour vote by 31%, and reduced that of Reform by 16%. People flocked to beat fascists. It was an exceptional factor. People in Manchester voted in the hope that Manchester would get a Prime Minister. That situation will not recur.<\/p>\n

And so, what now?<\/p>\n

Burnham says Labour must change, but has chosen<\/a> a group of economic advisers who are neoliberal to their core, including a former director of the Office for Budget Responsibility, Andy Haldane, formerly from the Bank of England, and Lord Jim O\u2019Neill, once of Goldman Sachs. In summary, nothing will change with people like that on his advisory team.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s not pretend otherwise. Burnham is going to play to the markets, not to the people, continuing with Labour Party policy that long ago forgot what the party\u2019s roots were and whom it is meant to serve. Ignore the rhetoric of the victory speech. Look at the man\u2019s intentions based upon the people he\u2019s already chosen to advise him.<\/p>\n

No one can doubt now that Burnham will be Prime Minister. Starmer has to decide today, or at the very least over the weekend, whether to allow an orderly progression or instead create a messy situation which cannot help Labour. But whichever happens, nothing changes the fact that if Burnham chooses to be neoliberal to his core, he has no answers relevant to the people of Makerfield or the UK as a whole. In that case, come 2029, Labour will face just as many difficulties and the same potential annihilation as it does now under Starmer.<\/p>\n

In summary: everything changed, and nothing changed. The single transferable party is still in charge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The result is known. Andy Burnham won\u00a0resoundingly, increasing Labour\u2019s share of the vote in the Makerfield constituency by winning 55% of the vote, leaving Reform
 Read the full article…<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204,35,16,147,118,224,106,223],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economic-justice","category-economics","category-ethics","category-inequality","category-labour","category-neoliberalism","category-politics","category-politics-of-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93277,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93276\/revisions\/93277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.taxresearch.org.uk\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}