Burnham’s vow to end Labour briefing wars will test his grip on the party

Andy Burnham (left) with Ed Miliband outside No 10 in July 2024. Miliband has been the target of vicious briefing over his prospects of becoming chancellor. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham (left) with Ed Miliband outside No 10 in July 2024. Miliband has been the target of vicious briefing over his prospects of becoming chancellor. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Reuters Analysis Burnham’s vow to end Labour briefing wars will test his grip on the party Rowena Mason Whitehall editor Tensions between his aims are already there, including disputes over key appointments such as chancellor Andy Burnham’s vision for cleaning up Westminster politics is a utopian one: ending the dominance of the whipping system, Whitehall power hoarding and the “insidious briefing culture” of the bubble. In his first speech on becoming Labour leader, he warned his party it “won’t beat Britain’s new right if we are consumed by infighting and pulling in different directions”. Burnham is not wrong to try to weed out some of the endemic problems of factionalism in British politics that result in power struggles, rather than a focus on where agreement can be found. But the tensions between his aims are already there: to end the culture of briefing between politicians and factions jostling for ascendancy would need some extremely tough command-and-control discipline and control of the narrative from the centre. The new leader’s fledgling operation has also so far proved no different to any other when it comes to ending factionalism. Indeed, Burnham’s supporters have not got their candidate to the very top without a very large amount of briefing and organising to undermine Keir Starmer – despite his claim to have been loyal to the outgoing prime minister. Six political headaches Andy Burnham must tackle in his first weeks as PM Read more Since then, there have been disputes between the right and soft left of the party, with key players falling out over who has the most input into policy, who should get which job and how policies, from North Sea drilling to immigration controls, should proceed. Ed Miliband, who helped propel Burnham to the leadership, has been the target of vicious briefing by those who feared he would be too antagonistic to business and could spook the markets if chosen as chancellor. Likewise there has been a counter-briefing operation against Shabana Mahmood , the alternative choice for chancellor, from some on the soft left who are eager to paint her as too far on the Blue Labour right to win over the party. And rival ministers have not been shy to pick up the phone to journalists to tell them why they would be better candidates for the job instead. Lucy Powell, the deputy party leader and possible deputy prime minister, told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that some of the speculation around whether Miliband would be chancellor had been “really quite horrible, to be honest, and unedifying”, blaming political j