Like some teenage idealist, Andy Burnham wants to spread hope and happiness across the UK and be universally adored. But the nice guy image is at odds with the whips system. The whips are the parliamentary enforcers used by governments to keep their MPs in order and on message.
Burnham has said that he would loosen the “straitjacket of the whip” in parliament. In one interview he suggested that he might even abandon the whips system altogether. But if he wants to be a serious PM, he will have to think again. As Keir Starmer learned, MPs can be an unruly bunch, particularly when their party has a hefty majority.
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Burnham has toughened his stance somewhat, indicating that he would insist his MPs should support measures in the party manifesto, a perfectly reasonable stance.
But that position would not have saved Keir Starmer from the politically disastrous defeat he suffered over attempts to cut welfare. That move had not featured in the party’s 2024 manifesto, a bland collection of mission statements and platitudes with the core message: “We are not the Conservatives.”
It was less than a year later when the prime minister proposed benefit cuts aimed at saving just £5bn a year by 2030, a mere sliver of the £333bn that the UK spends annually on social security and welfare. In response, 120 of his MPs stamped their feet and said “no way”. Even after significantly diluting the proposed cuts, 47 MPs rebelled against the whip and voted against the bill.
If an MP is serially disobedient, a whip can inflict pain in varying degrees. They can deprive an MP of a minor role, such as trade envoy. But for major misdemeanours they can suspend MPs from the party, which brings the risk of being thrown out by their constituency. Only a handful of persistent rebels received any punishment from Starmer, who took the ultimate hit himself.
One of the 120 rebels who publicly declared they would not support their leader was Anneliese Midgley, now Burnham’s choice for chief whip. Her previous career was in the trade union movement where obedience to the leadership is generally taken for granted.
Midgley, who also worked for Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign, supported Burnham from the outset. She is also MP for a northern constituency near his and so was well placed to secure a senior role.
It may be that she shares her boss’s vision of a whips’ office that’s less of a disciplinary unit and more of a human resources department. But however attractive some MPs might find that, the reality is going to push in another direction. If Midgley is going to deliver for the PM, she will do so by winning votes for him in parliament.
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Manifestos cannot spell out all the details of legislation that a government wants, nor can they take account of changing circumstances that require action. That means that, if the government is to govern, it will sometimes need its MPs to vote for things they don’t necessarily like.
It’s not just in TV dramas that the whips resort to underhand tactics: the “black book” full of awkward personal details that MPs want kept secret is not entirely fictional. The former Tory chief whip, Gavin Williamson, kept Cronus, a tarantula, on his desk in Westminster, a mute but eloquent message to potential dissidents.
The summer gives Midgley time to hone her own technique as chief whip. Despite her boss’s idealistic view of politics, she will need it.
