“If he gets a big, big bounce and the other parties decline, it will be very tempting for him, for example, if we’re 15 points ahead in October,” said this MP, who, like others in this article, was granted anonymity to speak frankly. “I can tell you though the mood among Labour MPs is that we very much do not want him to go for an early election.”
Not another one
Burnham’s backers are well aware he will face an onslaught of demands to give voters a say and criticism for having no mandate as soon as he walks into No. 10 Downing Street. That’s partly because he made the same argument, calling for an election, when Johnson announced his resignation in July 2022.
“It’s what we’re going to be hit with and we need to be prepared for that and able to counter it,” said one Burnham ally of the call they expect to face to go to the country. “But I seem to remember it working out well for the Tories when they replaced [Margaret] Thatcher with [John] Major mid term.” Against expectations, Major won the subsequent election in 1992.
The Burnham ally insisted the public tends to be more understanding of leadership changes than they are given credit for. That may turn out to be true, though the reason might not be sympathy so much as weariness.
Any PM calling a snap vote would do well to keep in mind the words of one voter, who nine years ago summed up the mood of a nation already tired of endless political drama. The country had seen a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014, a general election in 2015, a Brexit referendum in 2016 and May had just called a snap election in 2017.
The voter, who was identified only as “Brenda from Bristol” in a television interview, became a viral hit when she gave her reaction to May’s announcement of a snap vote: “You’re joking,” said Brenda. “Not another one. Oh, for God’s sake, honestly, I can’t stand this. There’s too much politics going on at the moment.”