It is time to talk about the real Andy Burnham and what he cares about most. In other words, let the discussion begin on his choice of clothing. What Burnham lacks in detailed policies and deeply-held political principles he more than makes up with a wardrobe overflowing with ideas on what to wear and when.
Burnham’s wardrobe is all about telling put-upon voters everywhere that he is grounded and relatable
The King of the North has spent the last decade or so away from Westminster thinking deeply (more deeply than he cares to admit) about things like bomber jackets and T-shirts. Andy now reaches places that the bog standard male politician (dressed in ill-fitting dark suit, pale shirt and dull tie) can only dream of.
This weekend, while there was political turmoil in Downing Street and Westminster, a relaxed Burnham was to be found strutting his stuff in the streets of Cheshire, his well-manicured feet finely dressed in Birkenstock shoes. Birkenstocks (as surely everyone knows) stand for utilitarian and comfortable design over traditional beauty. What could be more Burnham than this?
When celebrating his victory a few days earlier in the Makerfield by-election, our would-be PM opted for white zip-up polo shirt, indigo jeans and a pair of brown trainers. Choices, choices and more choices.
Burnham’s recent fashion statements have included going for a run in too-short shorts and jogging trainers, prompting much ignorant comment about how much thigh is acceptable for a middle-aged politician to display. This is to misunderstand fundamentally the fashion moment we are living through: 1980s vintage Everton tops are all the rage in social circles that still remember an era when the club actually competed for the big trophies. As for his fiv-inch inseam Adidas running shorts, what confident working-class hero wouldn’t opt to show a little leg in the appropriate setting?
Burnham’s wardrobe is all about telling put-upon voters everywhere that he is grounded and relatable, just an ordinary northern bloke making his way in life.
His much recycled black-on-black look might be described by some as lacking in imagination, others have even hinted that it is altogether creepy, but that is to miss the point. This is a look that fashion aficionados would lovingly describe as “understated”. It has included, at different times, black bomber jackets, black jumpers with (scandalously) no shirt underneath, and black T-shirts. For added measure and true working-class authenticity, he has been known to throw in the odd workwear jacket. This is to reach almost stratospheric levels of non-conformity, radicalism with a small r, and all without having to say a word about anything as dull as actual policy. Eat your heart out, Keir Starmer.
All of this is a long way from the “suited and booted” Burnham of the Blair years. In that period, he would never be caught dead in anything but suit and tie. He admitted in 2015 to buying Armani suits (no C&A or Topman fabrics for this self-respecting tribune of the workers).
Even so, Burnham was careful to add the rider that his suits were bought in the Boxing Day sales, proving to himself and others that he remains a man of the people. In a newspaper interview in 2022, he said of his suit and tie period in Westminster: “I remember, when I left, slowly realising: ‘I don’t have to do this anymore…it was an evolution and I’m not going back.’”
There speaks a politician who isn’t afraid to make the really big decisions. I defy anyone reading this to suggest that Burnham is anything less than a deep thinker, open to new ideas and decisive when it comes to the important things in life.
Envious Labour politicians, many of whom slogged away in Westminster for years while Burnham moved north to try out a new range in clothing, would be wise to buck up their ideas. When Burnham enters Number Ten (as he must surely do) it won’t be a case of filling his cabinet with the brightest and the best. The real test will come down to who is wearing what fashion label and why.
Ministers will have to rid themselves of any outfits that could be interpreted as representing the cosy and outdated Westminster establishment. A mass burning of suits and ties will be in order to make plain that the government is on the side of “working people”. Or perhaps Burnham, ever the shape-shifter, will confuse everyone one more time by turning up in Downing Street in a suit and tie. It wouldn’t be the first or the last time that the King of the Catwalk simply changed his mind about who he is and what he believes.
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