Burnham's anti-neoliberal rhetoric must be matched by radical budget measures, or his project will fail and the far right will benefit
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/andrea-egan. "If the PM reboots the UK for working-class people, unions will be with him. But the time for talking is over | Andrea Egan | The Guardian." October 26, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author, head of the Unison union, says the PM has talked boldly about breaking with decades of free-market politics, so his first budget has to deliver real change: more money for public services, bringing outsourced work back in-house and taxing the wealthy more. Small, quick-win measures won't be enough, and if he fails the far right will gain. If he goes for it, the unions will back him.
Conclusion
The prime minister's upcoming budget must begin delivering radical, structural change in line with his anti-neoliberal rhetoric, including multiyear public service funding, bringing services back in-house and higher taxes on the wealthy. If it does, unions will back him; if it does not, his project is likely to fail.
Premises
- Burnham has diagnosed the UK's malaise as the result of the wrong turns taken in the 1980s and has declared that there is an alternative to neoliberalism, a historic shift for a Labour prime minister.
- If that diagnosis is correct, it logically requires structural change of the economy, at minimum public ownership of some sectors and large-scale investment to rebuild public services, infrastructure and collective life.
- The government's measures so far are welcome quick wins, but they are piecemeal and cannot undo four decades of neoliberalism or keep pace with worsening affordability pressures.
- Without radical action, people's lives will keep getting worse rapidly, and the far right will benefit if Burnham's project fails.
- Those who have profited from neoliberalism, such as the business lobby and the rightwing media, will resist any real break, so the government must defy them, for instance by equalising income and capital gains tax, in order to fund the programme.
- Unison and the wider trade union movement will back the prime minister if he pursues these ambitions.
Assumptions
- Burnham's diagnosis that the country's problems trace back to 1980s neoliberal turns is substantially correct.
- Public ownership, in-house service delivery and higher taxes on wealth and capital are the right tools to reverse neoliberalism and improve workers' lives.
- The budget is the decisive moment for signalling and starting structural change.
- Incremental measures cannot add up to structural change or sustain political support.
- Rhetorical ambition creates an obligation, and a political necessity, to match it with policy.
- The fiscal and political constraints (Treasury, markets, media pressure) can be overcome through political will.
- Failure of the Labour project would be the main route to far-right gains.