Preface
I remember how pleased he was on General Election night back on 2015. It was a massive majority we secured in Leigh, Andy's constituency seat. Over 14,000 votes! While it was always a safe seat, Andy thought that we would be able to gauge Labour's national strength by on how we preformed in our heartlands. That increase of over 2,000 gave him some encouragement, and I can remember, clear as day, us talking about how we'd need to hit the ground running at the Department of Health. Andy back then was Labour's Shadow Health Secretary and had big ideas around integrating social care provision with the National Health Service (NHS). He knew he'd have plenty of opposition from people within the party like Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, but he was determined that when Labour got back into government, it fulfilled the promises it was making to generations of people.
After Nuneaton's result though, all those ambitions came crashing down. The Conservative's victory there was not conceived in the Labour Leadership's most pessimistic predictions. Ed Miliband's staff, the current Leader of the Labour party, were on the phone seconds later making clear that they still thought we would be able to form some kind of agreement with the Scottish Nationalists and enter into a Minority Government. But Andy knew it was over as he looked to the TV screen and it showed the south of England covered in Conservative Blue, every single seat in Scotland that had so far been declared being awarded to the SNP, and in the North of England awarding huge swings to Nigel Farage's UKIP party. This wasn't like 1997, this wasn't even like 2005. Both Andy and I knew we weren't heading into Government, infact we were probably heading towards our worst result since the days of Michael Foot.
It had to be about 3am when Andy called me into his office and asked everyone else to leave. He had just been off the phone with Ed Balls, Labour's current Shadow Chancellor. Ed had just told Andy he was likely to lose his seat. I remember falling into the nearest seat, I was in total shock and Andy just looked at me in despair. Despite the fact he had run against both Ed Balls and Ed Miliband for the party's leadership, he had grown to respect them both immensely. The Guardian only days before had infact named Andy as one of Ed Miliband's staunchest allies, and for once the paper's had it spot on. I thought Andy might cry, he really believed both Eds would have made the country a better place. I expected his first words to me would be ones of shock and sorrow, but what came next shocked me.
Andy Burnham:
David. I'm going to run for the Leadership of the Labour Party.
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David Matheson was the Chief of Staff and Chairman of the Andy Burnham for Labour Leader campaign.
In this book, Burnham. The road to No.10, David explores Andy Burnham's leadership of the Labour Party. The trails and tribulations that he and his staff encountered in dealing with a party in opposition to a majority Conservative Government, fighting with a resurgent Scottish Nationalist Party that had all but conquered the birth place of Labour and a growing anti-europeanism that enthused UKIP in Labour's heartlands in the North of England and Wales.