Silly season is upon us but politics will get serious soon enough
In May, Reform MP Danny Kruger unveiled a substantial piece of work “setting out Reform’s plans for the centre of government, shaped by the research of the Preparation for Government team.” His 5,000 word article went into huge detail about the structural changes his party intends to make to Whitehall and the machinery of government. This was the kind of work aimed at confounding the critics who felt that Nigel Farage’s party was failing to graduate from permanent protest mode.
It was an interesting moment in the party’s development, and it seemed possible that the summer would provide space for Reform to talk more about serious policy development.
Instead, following a by-election defeat, awkward questions about cash and donors, and a new PM enjoying a poll bounce, Reform’s summer is now dedicated to the absurd spectacle of Farage campaigning against a comedian dressed as a bin. Reform’s by-election is a classic retreat into their comfort zone of stunts, grievances and noise.
Burnham’s summer of great content and easy money
And while Reform spends the summer holiday by the seaside in Clacton, Andy Burnham bestrides the country – one leg in Manchester, the other in London – pumping out viral social media content and announcing policies without the irritation of parliamentary scrutiny or the distraction of Westminster politics. He’s given himself the best possible runway to party conference season, at which he’ll be hailed a hero by party members and activists, quite possibly in command of an even greater poll lead over Reform.
It must be acknowledged that while Farage appears to have shot himself in the foot, Burnham has dealt himself a great hand and is playing his cards well. At least, that’s the story for the next six or eight weeks, but the honeymoon won’t last.
Farage will return to parliament. The reality of Westminster politics will take the edge off Burnham’s summer of great content and easy money, and he’ll find himself in a number of fights: against his own MPs opposed to any spending cuts; against a bond market sceptical that his sums will add up; and against a Tory leader in Kemi Badenoch who made mincemeat out of Burnham’s predecessor at the weekly bout of Prime Minister’s Questions and who is spending her summer planning how to tackle the new Labour leader.
They say August is silly season in news, and while that’s certainly the case in Clacton things will get serious again by September.