“It’s a long time since I’ve been asked for ID,” confessed Andy Burnham, holding a pint of Guinness and offering a wry smile to a cameraperson. “But I do remember that sinking feeling, when you’ve reached the front of the queue and you realise your driving license has gone walkabout.”
In an address to his 700,000+ TikTok followers last month, the Prime Minister soft-launched new rules allowing pubgoers to use a digital ID app on their phones to buy booze. Previously, only physical ID would pass muster.
Cool Britannia doesn’t work in 2026 when there is significantly higher inflation and slower growth than in the 1990s
“That’s one less thing to remember before a night out!” Burnham, whose predecessors created the NHS, won World War II, brought peace to Northern Ireland and legalised same-sex marriage said, beaming triumphantly and swigging from his drink.
It has been almost three months since Burnham seized control of the Labour Party and the country in a manner that would make Machiavelli blush. Since then, he has shown us just what kind of politician he is.
Unlike Reform’s Nigel Farage, he has not whipped people up into an anti-establishment frenzy, while managing to somehow shake off the stains of a public-school education and career in the city. Unlike the Green’s Zack Polanski, he hasn’t presided over a party which backed a motion claiming that Zionism is racism.
But Burnham is as much a populist as Farage and Polanski, he has just built his base with a different segment of the electorate. Burnham is the everyman populist, and he is going to make it much easier to buy a pint, thank you very much.
As well as reducing the small amount of friction involved in buying booze, Burnham has pursued several other everyman populist policies. Other quick dopamine hits include working to stop airlines from imposing certain extra charges on passengers and backing a trial to end the ban on football fans drinking in stands. He’s even made buses slightly cheaper.
It is unlikely anyone would object to a cheaper flight or bus journey, but this is hardly stuff for the history books. And while Burnham busies himself with tidying the deckchairs on the Titanic, the Titanic still sinks.
More than 13 million people live in relative poverty in the UK as household energy bills are forecast to see their biggest rise in four years. Cancer rates are rising and yet chronic understaffing and high demand means it remains difficult to get a GP appointment.
Burnham has promised to sort all this out and then some. He pledged to “end rough sleeping in our country” in his first speech in Downing Street, and later offered £442 million to do so. He’s also proposed free personal care for older people, greater public control of water and schemes to get young people on that elusive housing ladder. But just how he will achieve these grandiose goals remains unclear. For now, his words remain just that: words.
It’s not just his trivial policies that make Burnham a populist. His branding and use of social media are also deeply cynical.
From his cosy nostalgic The Smiths jam session in Kyiv (something that will surely cause Putin to retreat) to his obsession with Manchesterism and Cool Britannia, it is clear he seeks to induce a Pavlovian response in Generation Xers, reminding them of a period of economic prosperity and hope without instead creating economic prosperity and hope.
Likewise, taking part in nonsense social media trends like ranking 1990s albums and posting perplexing memes on his No. 10 North Instagram might endear him to young millennial and Gen Z voters who see him as a bit of a Dad. But Cool Britannia doesn’t work in 2026 when there is significantly higher inflation and slower growth than in the 1990s.
Keir Starmer got a lot of schtick for his lack of charisma, apparent boringness and inability to seem normal. Ed Miliband daring to eat a bacon sandwich was the death knell in his election campaign in 2014. The public values relatability. It helps politicians get elected and stay in power. Burnham has a +7 favourability rating and people see him as down to earth and honest. But our country needs more than someone they would enjoy going to the pub with.
The truth is that pursuing a moderate populist agenda is bad for the country. Having lived through a conveyor belt of ever-changing prime ministers in recent years, all with different diagnoses and cures for societal ills, the electorate is being conditioned to enjoy short-term instant-gratification. Whenever there is a perception that things are not getting better, we spin the wheel again.
By prioritising easy win policies, Burnham is feeding this instability. Instead, he should educate the electorate on the challenges of long-term structural change and pursue this change with dignity, rather than worrying about his TikTok likes.
I do remember that sinking feeling of reaching the front of the queue at a bar and realising I’ve forgotten my, ahem, provisional driving license. And while I do sympathise with just how much a minor inconvenience it is to be refused a pint of Guinness for the sin of possessing a youthful visage, Britain deserves better than Burnham bouncing into our living rooms and papering over the yawning cracks in our society, while blasting the Stone Roses out of his Walkman.
But cheers, prime minister. Thanks for making it easier to get a pint.
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