Rosa Prince

Andy Burnham won power in Britain this summer by proving to his own Labour Party that he could beat the hard-right populists of Reform UK. Now, thanks to a flounce out of Parliament by the prime minister he usurped, he has a chance to show he can slay dragons on the left too.

When Nigel Farage returned to the House of Commons after triggering an unnecessary by-election this summer, he marked the occasion with a video filmed from Parliament’s rooftop. The honey-hued stonework of the Palace of Westminster, set against a clear blue sky, created a fabulous social-media backdrop. Unfortunately, for safety and security reasons, filming on Parliament’s roof is strictly forbidden — as anyone who’s worked on the estate knows. The authorities duly reprimanded Farage.

The last time I was in Drumcree, the Northern Ireland tinderbox where Catholic residents are engaged in a standoff with Orange Order marchers, I was hit on the leg by a golf ball. It was launched at me by rioters as the police blocked unionists from parading down the Garvaghy Road, a pro-Irish nationalist enclave of largely Protestant Portadown.

“This is the deal,” Andy Burnham declared as he used his first speech to the Labour Party annual conference as prime minister to promise a new national-care system for the UK funded by scrapping the “triple lock” pension ratchet. His “deal,” of course, went much further than just facing down retirees. He grabbed the moment to make the intellectual and moral case for a more expansive state.

If Andrew Griffith wanted to write a guide on how not to run an economy, he has lots of examples from his fairly short stint in British politics. His first Westminster job in 2019 was for then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the man who secured the financially ruinous Brexit and who reportedly once uttered, “ F**k business.” Three years later Griffith served at the Treasury during the mercifully short premiership of Liz Truss, who destroyed the country’s credibility with the bond markets.

This week should have been a triumph for the UK’s Green Party. Instead, it finds itself a pariah; riven internally, isolated politically and condemned globally, thanks to a toxic embrace of hardline anti-Zionism. Its stance has brought shame to one of the world’s oldest environmental parties, a once admirable movement dedicated to confronting the climate disaster long before it was fashionable.

“Islam, as practiced by millions of Muslims in Britain, is entirely incompatible with our British way of life.” So posted the Restore Britain leader Rupert Lowe on X this week, with words designed to be incendiary and divisive. They were also highly profitable.

Political moderates around the world are wondering whether the populist genie can be put back into the bottle. What’s happening in the UK should give them hope.

If the worst job in British politics is leader of his majesty’s loyal opposition, nobody told Kemi Badenoch. Since becoming Conservative leader in 2024, months after the party’s worst election defeat, Badenoch has often had to put up with being eclipsed by Nigel Farage and his hard-right Reform UK. Her success in battling that is impressive.

When Andy Burnham sought the UK premiership in the summer, he corralled two finance heavyweights to bolster his credentials — Jim O’Neill, an ex-Conservative minister and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alumnus, and former Bank of England Chief Economist Andy Haldane. As he marks 100 days in office today and ahead of his first budget on Wednesday, Burnham would do well to heed his erstwhile advisers’ warnings that Britain’s central problems — weak growth, spiraling public spending and soaring debt — re