Why we're about to find out if the Andy Burnham era will turn out to be another false dawn – Christine Jardine

Andy Burnham is popular now but how long will that last? (Picture: Eddie Mulholland/WPA pool) | Getty Images

Returning to parliament this week almost feels like finally getting to see that blockbuster movie, TV series or video game that has been trailed everywhere. Sort of like GTA 6 or The Odyssey… depending on your taste. The Andy Burnham show will finally begin its long awaited and much-heralded run at Westminster tomorrow.

So far, it has all been stage-managed, popular announcements and high-profile visits to set out his stall as the man to lead the country back to stability. But this week he will have to start making those promises a reality by setting out to parliament exactly what it is that a Burnham-led Labour government will do differently from a Starmer one.

Once he is at that despatch box for the first time as Prime Minister on Wednesday, the questions will start to come thick and fast. The most important, of course, will be where he is going to find the money for the various changes he has promised while getting growth back in the economy.

READ MORE: Poll: Andy Burnham now most popular political leader in Scotland

Big North Sea call

Burnham will also have to take the plunge over oil and gas and say whether he will allow the Rosebank and Jackdaw fields to go ahead. Already licensed and ready to go into production, many people see them as a way of shoring up our national energy security and providing the revenue headroom for a just transition to renewables.

Many others see any suggestion of using those fields’ resources as an undermining of our net-zero targets and climate protection.

At the moment the new PM is riding high on a popularity bounce which sees him as the only party leader – national or Scottish – with a positive popularity rating in Scotland. Figures revealed at Edinburgh festival’s Diffley Partnership breakfast briefing showed him on plus nine. His nearest rival is Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey, followed by the First Minister.

The picture is not looking quite so rosy for Scottish Labour, however, having lost both their leader and ground at the Holyrood elections. To date the party’s leadership contest north of the Border has failed to ignite the sort of interest and enthusiasm in the public as the UK one.

READ MORE: Andy Burnham calls summit of Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish first ministers

Local elections loom

If Labour is to succeed in Scotland under Burnham that must change, and they must find a way of dragging themselves out of the electoral doldrums in the same way as they did in 2024. The first big test is likely to be the local elections next year in which around a third of English seats and all the Scottish ones are up for grabs.

In Edinburgh, having once been the dominant council force, they are no longer even the second party in the city, having slipped behind the Liberal Democrats to joint third and they could fall even further depending on the results of forthcoming by-elections.

There is a lot at stake for the people of Scotland’s capital and the country just now. For the Labour party too. Many of their hopes are pinned on the success of one man. This week we will begin to see how realistic that hope is.

A new era is beginning in British politics. Or is it just another false dawn?

Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West