As Aletha Adu pointed out last week (Wes Streeting faces narrow road to Labour members’ favour, 12 May), a recent poll has Andy Burnham on more support among Labour members than Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner put together. More importantly, among the general public Burnham is not only the most popular Labour politician, by 11 points, but the most popular politician of any stripe in the country.
The reality is that Burnham represents our best chance of preventing the catastrophe of a Reform UK government. He is relatable and has both political vision and get-your-hands-dirty pragmatism. He is the only Labour politician more popular among the general public than Nigel Farage – and by six points.
His popularity is unusually robust across demographics, with higher net favourability among both Reform and Green voters than any other Labour politician. Remarkably, he has the highest net favourability of any current politician across all socioeconomic demographics, across all nations in the United Kingdom, and across all regions of England.
One of the few groups for whom Burnham is not the favourite is 18- to 24-year-olds. They prefer Zack Polanski, and understandably so – Burnham likes him too. But Burnham is the one Labour candidate who has openly engaged with the idea of a progressive alliance with the Greens and others, for which some have lambasted him. Burnham is the best chance of bringing the Greens’ radicalism into the fold. Progressives need to unite behind Burnham, and the Greens not running an all-out campaign against him in Makerfield would be a sensible place to start (Greens split over how hard to challenge Burnham in Makerfield byelection, 18 May).
Dr Craig Reeves
Birkbeck, University of London
• Owen Jones counsels caution about the left supporting Andy Burnham, and he is correct (After the painful ruse of Starmerism, the left should be cautious of Andy Burnham, 19 May). As a Green party member, I have much sympathy with those who argue that Greens should seek to demonstrate their penetration into Labour’s heartlands by fighting a campaign like our magnificent one in Gorton and Denton.
However, there are times when we must set aside our differences with other progressives for our democracy, our planet and future generations. This is such a moment.
As some have argued, there is a strong case for Greens taking a deep breath and offering conditional and critical support for Burnham. This has to be based on the condition that, if elected and if he becomes prime minister, he will move to introduce long-overdue reform of our voting system.
Introducing a proportional voting system is the only way to secure democratic legitimacy in our current five-party system (or seven-party system if you include Plaid Cymru and the SNP). And, importantly, it is the only way to stop the inexorable rise of Reform UK, with the terrifying prospect of it forming the next government based on a similar proportion of the vote to Labour in 2024 (34%) – or even less.
I have much sympathy for the notion that tactical voting is dishonest, disingenuous politics – voting blind for “second best”. But perhaps in Makerfield it could be a tactical vote to end the scourge of tactical voting.
Steve Williams
Godalming, Surrey
• In response to Owen Jones, I would add the following reasons why the Labour left should be careful what it wishes for in promoting Andy Burnham’s bid to be the next prime minister and why Green voters in Makerfield should be sceptical about his environmental credentials.
First, on his watch as mayor, millions of pounds were squandered on putting up signs and cameras on roads announcing a clean air zone for Greater Manchester, only for this to be quietly abandoned in an appalling act of political cowardice.
Second, also on his watch, even Chris Boardman, the cycling tsar, was unable to introduce more than a few tokenistic stretches of cycle lanes and pedestrianised roads in Manchester city centre and its suburbs.
Third, in tandem with the Labour-run Manchester city council, Burnham has promoted the relentless building of skyscrapers that are a totally unsustainable form of housing for tackling the challenges of climate breakdown.
Rosalind Brown-Grant
Manchester
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