Labour Party

By Andy Ford

These are just my notes, not the official record, so there may be slight slips and omissions. I voted for the nomination, as although Burnham had a mixed record in Health, like when he signed off the privatisation of the labs at Kings College Hospital with £2m of new equipment and £2m-worth of contracts, he did also make the NHS the PREFERRED PROVIDER for NHS contracts, much to the fury of the Blairites in the cabinet – particularly Alan Milburn.

Andy Burnham is at least open to persuasion, unlike Keir Starmer, who has been deaf to argument, persuasion and logic – in simple terms bloody useless and politically inept.

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Sharon Graham’s report to the special EC on July 9, 2026 (not verbatim):

“We helped Starmer “move on” so we do need to take a view on the Labour leadership. The nominations will be published 7 pm tonight.

We expect and we need a change in the economic and political direction. If there is no fundamental change Labour will lose the next election. The TULO statement, that we co-ordinated, from all 11 unions, played its part in securing a change of leader.

We were getting nothing back. Not on Grangemouth, not the Birmingham bins. We support a Wealth Tax. That was a no. Labour policy is to renationalise energy. We know because it was our [conference] motion. But it was ignored. Instead, they brought us cuts in Winter Fuel Allowance and preserved the two-child benefit cap.

If nothing changes, affiliation will not get through Rules [conference] in 2027. But Farage is only riding high because of Labour’s lack of delivery. I did a lot of the work on the TULO statement. Labour must deliver for the working class, not only for us as unions, but also to defeat the far right.

I met Andy Burnham to see what his direction of travel is. He can make promises but what we need to know is where will he get the money?

The fiscal rules are not really rules. They have been changed lots of times for political reasons. The second rule is about debt to GDP but it’s not taking account of all the assets we actually have. He has pledged to use the fiscal rules very differently.

I also said to him he needs to take immediate steps, not get lost in the ‘long term’, he needs to do something like [the cuts in] Winter Fuel, but in reverse. A clear statement of intent. He could unfreeze the tax thresholds that have not changed in four years, and that Reeves has said will be frozen for another six. The 40% rate is now catching nurses and tankers drivers.

Bus workers should be counted as key workers to deal with the level of assault.

We need to renationalise energy, starting with the grid. A wealth tax could raise billions.

Local authority debt: Burnham will not cancel it, but he could abolish the extra 0.8% they pay for admin. across the sector which is running to hundreds of millions.

Net zero – we support net zero, but not by mass closures. Not a jobless transition. We need investment in green steel, renewables. These industries are an investment opportunity.

Defence – we should not put defence workers against public sector workers. But if we need defence, which we do, it should be made in Britain. The money is there.

I think Andy has changed and learnt while away from Westminster. If he hasn’t Labour will not succeed.

The proposal [at this meeting] is to nominate Burnham with conditions and expectations. We want to see ‘Real’ Labour. He is the only candidate and at 7pm tonight he will have the 81 nominations.

No-one needs to tell me about politicians. On Burnham’s Cabinet, there is no decision. I have been clear that whoever is Chancellor cannot go for a jobless transition. We cannot off shore our carbon responsibilities and have no refineries but have ships coming in with oil and gas from abroad.

We would welcome a lot of cabinet moves, like of the team at local government at the moment.

We need help on buses, nationalisation of the utilities, raising of the tax thresholds. If he doesn’t do that, and goes back to business as usual, the support would not last. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t think it will be business as usual. I know there were some problems when he was Secretary of State for Health but I think he has learnt and changed outside the Westminster bubble.”

The EC agreed to nominate Andy Burnham, by 30 votes to 2, with 8 abstentions.

Andy Ford is a member of the Unite NEC, elected within the Health sector and this is republished with his permission from from his regular blog, which can be found here here