In politics you either make the memes or you become them
What Keir Starmer's rise and fall can teach Andy Burnham about power in the age of social media
On Monday, I nipped out from the centre to go and get a sandwich for my lunch from the M&S in Euston Station. Choppers circled overhead though that isn’t unusual in central London at any time, especially around a station. Less usual was the throng of journalists speed walking to the side exit gate on Eversholt Street and setting up camp on the raised platforms around it.
On my return minutes later, the throng was a growing crowd and trying to edge my way through it back to work turned out to be a mistake. By the time I realised that it was Andy Burnham arriving into town to be anointed in Westminster, I found myself stuck between a man with a camera (“mate can you move your head, I am filming for the BBC”) and a journalist reporting live, simply to get a passing shot of him passing briefly in a black cab.
Of course, the Prime Minister’s resignation a day earlier had changed everything for their party and the country. And based on the baying rabble disrupting my walk back to work, it seems to have changed for the King of the North.
Over the years I have met Keir Starmer a handful of times and he has visited New Horizon on three different occasions during my time there, something not that strange given that he is also our local MP and a committed supporter of young people in the borough.
When people ask me what he is like I gladly tell them, unreservedly that he is a good man and although I will not have agreed with everything he has done in office or before it, I believe he is amongst a rare breed of public servants that has genuinely given his career to helping others. But something else defined his visits that has always stayed with me and it is a test that will now define Burnham too and those that come after him.
When just a lowly MP, he came with just one aide. We met, he showed an interest in the work and then left. There were no photos or set pieces.
When running for leadership of the Labour Party in the winter of 2019, the visit was perhaps necessarily of a different shape. There was an aide again, two I believe, but this time a camera too. Yes, he showed interest, but he also relayed that interest to someone filming for social media. A set piece for the set of his leadership bid that was underway. It felt too like we were on a set.
In 2023, six months before he would become the most important man in the country, his visit felt almost surreal. Close protection police arrived hours before to assess the building and enquire who the young people were waiting to get in out front. “They are experiencing homelessness and not all will be known to us” I say, “entry through the side door. Over” they say via the walkie-talkie.
This time Keir arrives but so do three aides, a photographer and a cameraman. The 15 minutes he is with us are choreographed and - perhaps as it must be - as performative as it is political. You are conscious that everything is being filmed, that you are being watched and you sense that the future PM feels that too. The easy chat of before feels more ersatz. You cannot be this close to so much power and expect normal life to continue. You realise that you either master the media or it will master you.
Much will be made of what went wrong at Number 10 these last two years and how a historic majority became a historic unravelling. To say that Labour's communications have been lacking is a well-trodden point, but less attention has been paid to the Prime Minister's role in that. The missions felt muddled and no-one was clear what their leader really stood for. Watching him resign on Monday, you could almost sense the palpable regret from his party as, through tears, you could finally - and much too late - see this really did matter to him.
As we look back on six PMs in the last decade, it’s not hard to see how people draw the conclusion that the UK is ungovernable and make other arguments about the seemingly broken political system we are living with. But instead I wanted to reflect on another less spoken about point; the courts of public opinion.
That a man with a larger majority than Tony Blair in 1997 could be ousted in just under two years is perhaps surprising but what is shocking is not the timing but the technicality of how he fell on his sword. Brexit did for Cameron. Brexit did for May too. Boris did for himself. The Bond Markets did for Truss. Sunak was done for time.
But Starmer? Starmer was done by something much worse. He became a meme.
“Two Tier Keir”.
The millionaire son of tool maker.
The target of a trillionaire’s tirade.
Even Trump somehow managed to steal his thunder and announce his resignation before him. The court of social media never took to him and his sentence was passed down after a two year trial.
I was reminded of that as Andy Burnham pulled out of Euston on Tuesday being filmed from the sky as if in a police chase, motorbikes and paps following. This is a man used to media attention - and seemingly adept at it - but the rules have changed for him too now and while the media take an interest in a Mancunian Mayor, the Prime Minister will have a much tougher crowd to please - the public - and they, quite frankly, are pissed.
Rishi Sunak once said that a Prime Minister is never more powerful than on their first day. In the age of social media, that decline begins even sooner. The moment you start making decisions, you start making enemies.
Andy Burnham may yet prove more adept at navigating that world than the man before him. But watching the helicopters circle above Euston this week, I was reminded how quickly politics now turns people into characters. The challenge isn’t just governing the country now but making sure the story is about the progress and not the politician.
The lesson of modern politics is one his opponents learnt long ago: in politics today you either make the memes or you become them. Andy Burnham now faces the same test that ultimately consumed his predecessor. The question is whether he can keep the focus on what he does rather than who the internet decides he is.
Because if he isn’t careful, Burnham down the house has a very repeatable ring to it and he might just find that he does.