Is Burnham just Starmer with vibes? The same lobby groups funded both

Is Burnham just Starmer with vibes? The same lobby groups funded both Submitted by Joe Gill on Mon, 08/31/2026 - 10:51 Big business and pro-Israel interests have dominated the Labour Party from Blair to Starmer. The new PM has little time to show he's not just that system's new face Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham talks with staff during a visit to a Sainsbury's supermarket in London on 26 August 2026 (Richard Pohle/AFP) On When he became prime minister this summer, Andy Burnham promised to end 40 years of neoliberalism. It was a bold declaration, and stood in contrast to the dull managerialism and endless staged relaunches by his predecessor, Keir Starmer. But less than 50 days since he became PM, it is clear that Burnham is failing to live up to his promise. He has backtracked on a number of key policy pledges that would mark out his premiership as something different to Starmer’s. These include a U-turn on a cap on large political donations that Burnham had previously pledged to back; abandoning support for rent controls to halt ever-rising housing costs for millions of private tenants; dropping his pledge that all investment in housing would go to council and affordable homes; and stalling the nationalisation of sewage-dumping Thames Water over its dire performance and ever-rising bills. Amid unprecedented drought , heatwaves and wildfires , Burnham is strangely unable to talk about a climate emergency. On international affairs, we await decisive action to sanction Israel over its ongoing atrocities in Gaza , and settler terrorism in the occupied West Bank. Strong words from Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband will need to be followed by actions, but Labour’s close ties to Israel over many decades – and Burnham’s inability to call a genocide a genocide – make such a move appear unlikely. Meantime, Benjamin Netanyahu describes the UK as "The Islamic State of Britain". Burnham follows neatly in Starmer’s footsteps on foreign policy. He visited Ukraine to offer more military support against Russia’s invasion, including a promise to share Storm Shadow long-range missile technology with Kyiv. Then on his first visit to Belfast as PM last week he told Northern Ireland’s nationalist voters that a referendum on Irish unification was “off the table”. This is straight out of the unionist playbook of Starmer, and was strongly condemned by Sinn Fein’s leadership. “The right to a referendum on Irish Unity is a key part of the Good Friday Agreement. It was agreed in referendums and is enshrined in international law,” said Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald, adding that Burnham's remarks send "a very dangerous message to those within unionism who want to obstruct, delay and attempt to recreate a past based on division and supremacy”. New face, same politics Perhaps the mistake is to expect Burnham to make any genuine break from what went before. And a key reason is that Labour, since Tony Blair, has become wedded to an economic model of profit extraction by global firms and loyalty to the US imperial order. This came with large business donors, and the whiff of cash for influence was never far behind, from the Bernie Ecclestone affair to the cash for honours scandal . This model of government was rebooted under Starmer, along with a penchant for senior party figures greedily accepting corporate freebies , from Taylor Swift tickets to Lord Alli’s wardrobe gifts for the leader. Burnham’s first declaration of interests to parliament since becoming prime minister reveal that his funders are almost the same as Starmer’s In his recent reincarnation as King of the North while Manchester mayor, Burnham became an outspoken critic of Westminster politics. But the test was always going to be whether this survived contact with a return to parliament and becoming prime minister. Burnham’s first declaration of interests to parliament since then reveal that his funders are almost the same as Starmer’s, including £22,000 from Think Labour, a rebranded version of the Labour Together pro-business project, and £50,000 from Charlie Parsons, partner to Starmer adviser and wardrobe donor Lord Alli. Burnham’s major donations also included £164,347 from longtime Blair ally Lord Sainsbury, and £25,000 f rom pro-Israel businessman Gary Lubner. Burnham announced a 10,000-place apprenticeship scheme for young people with the Sainsbury's retail chain this month, which raised some eyebrows. However, Lord Sainsbury left his role as chair of the family company in 1998 when he joined Blair's government as science minister. Institutional asset managers and large investment funds now own the majority of the company. "The donations were not linked to the supermarket’s activities," a No 10 office spokesperson stated to Middle East Eye. Cash for influence The issue of perceived business influence in politics does not end with Burnham. It is across parliament, from Labour to the Conservatives and Reform. One of Burnham’s senior Cabinet members, Angela Rayner, had a very busy, highly lucrative speaking schedule during the time she was out of office after resigning over her tax affairs last year. Now she is back in government as housing and local government secretary. She was paid £10,000 for a speech to Signum Global Advisors in March, which she asked to be donated to charity, then took £20,000 in donations from the firm in July. Signum’s clients include hedge funds, private equity firms, and oil multinationals. In March, Signum Global Advisors organised gatherings of dozens of oil company executives and hedge fund managers in Venezuela , where US President Donald Trump has taken control of the country's vast oil reserves since US forces kidnapped former leader Nicolas Maduro in January. A speech for Deutsche Bank earned Rayner £20,000; another £20,000 for a speech for financial services firm Coex Partners; and £20,000 for a speech at the estate agent trade body Propertymark in June, among others. Hundreds of academics and lawyers urge Burnham to lift Palestine Action ban Read More » These mega donations to Burnham and high-paying corporate gigs by Rayner symbolise everything that makes people cynical and despairing about politics. A spokesperson for Rayner said “all earnings have been declared in line with the rules”, but when an MP takes £20,000 from a property company for a speech, and then rules out a key pledge for rent controls that Burnham previously supported, millions of tenants would rightly feel betrayed. As long as Labour politicians treat their jobs as a way to increase their already high earnings, and accept donations from businesspeople who want access to power, hope for real change dies. And without hope, millions facing hardship in a rigged, stagnant economy will give up, or turn to the far right. A nexus of big business and pro-Israel interests have dominated the Labour Party for decades, with the relatively brief interruption of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Lord Sainsbury and his ilk stopped backing the party under Corbyn in protest at its new leftwing leader (their big donations were more than replaced by small donations from thousands of supporters and members). The unwritten rule of British politics is that whatever a party promises voters, its real loyalty must be to the corporate gravy train that sees utilities and public services turned into a source of mega profits for private equity and investment firms. Corporate donations are the glue that keeps it flowing. Ending neoliberalism, as Burnham promised, means breaking with this failed model. Burnham knows that unless he delivers concrete changes that tell voters he is not just Starmer with better vibes, Labour’s current poll boost will vanish. Given that the group of lobby interests behind Burnham is the same that backed Starmer, how he does this is hard to see. The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye. UK Politics Opinion Post Date Override 0 Update Date Mon, 05/04/2020 - 21:29 Update Date Override 0