With Burnham’s cabinet picks still unknown, MPs are struggling to control their anxieties

Culture change will require some “heads on spikes”, as one insider puts it

Tony Blair had some advice for his younger self this week, speaking at his eponymous institute’s glitzy summer party overlooking the Thames – and just a stone’s throw from where, nearly 30 years ago, he declared that a “new dawn” had broken on the night of Labour’s landslide election victory. Thinking of what he would say to the much younger man who stood on the cusp of power, the former prime minister paused for a moment. “You may think you’re going to be loved, but you’re not going to be,” he concluded. “Just try to be respected.” Rishi Sunak was among the assembled politicians and tech figures at the party who smiled in recognition.

It was aptly timed advice, equally applicable to another man who loves to be loved and who is days away from entering Downing Street. Andy Burnham “has a sure political touch” and is “a genuine people person”, Blair told his guests, comparing the incoming prime minister’s sincere interest in people with that of his friend Bill Clinton. Blair may have thrown a bomb into the Makerfield by-election campaign with his 5,000-word essay warning that Labour was “playing with fire” by changing leader – much to the displeasure of the Burnham team – but all is seemingly forgotten, on the Blair side at least. The pair have spoken privately in recent weeks, as Burnham makes his final preparations for entering No 10. Everyone is a Burnham fan now, while he is at the peak of his powers.

Burnham has spent his final days before entering No 10 putting the finishing touches to his plans for power, while cooped up in an old Westminster townhouse and engaged in access talks with Antonia Romeo, the head of the civil service. He has been accompanied by two all-important figures, whose influence has only grown in the absence of cabinet appointments. The first is James Purnell, his chief of staff, a former Blairite cabinet minister. His presence by Burnham’s side has reassured Labour’s moderate camp that the incoming premier is serious. But Purnell has been clear that he won’t be imposing his own politics, Blairite or otherwise. “I’m just here to implement Andy’s agenda,” he has told colleagues on Burnham’s team.

The second figure is Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary who jointly ran Burnham’s Makerfield campaign. She and Burnham are the only elected politicians in these meetings – they decided it would be impossible to include others without revealing cabinet appointments. Haigh’s presence speaks to her influence on and indispensability to the incoming prime minister. She is, essentially, the most powerful woman in Britain and clearly in line for a major role in his government.

Burnham is not expected to announce cabinet appointments until he returns from Buckingham Palace as prime minister on 20 July. Then he will appoint his new team in the usual manner of reshuffles, with happy politicians marching up Downing Street to receive their orders. And they will be marching orders: Burnham has deliberately used this time to think about what he wants done in every brief, so that cabinet ministers will work to his vision and not their own, just as he said in his speech several weeks ago. (“The political direction I set is not up for negotiation.”) In the access talks, Burnham has been giving “steers on everything”, as one attendee puts it. “He has thoughts on absolutely everything and he knows what he wants.”

But while Burnham may have used this cabinet-free time to decide his direction, anxieties and expectations have flourished in the vacuum. Ed Miliband has endured an anxious few weeks, unsure whether he will be appointed chancellor, while other cabinet colleagues and their aides wonder whether they will have a job at all in a week’s time. The “shoe-licking” has abated slightly after his team let it be known that Burnham was mildly horrified by the aggressive pitches he was receiving. But they have still been bemused to find themselves receiving point-by-point messages from colleagues explaining why they are the only person able to do a particular cabinet job. Some MPs are swanning around parliament as though they have already been appointed.

The people who have most impressed Burnham’s team are those who have simply tried to be helpful in whatever way they can, such as Shabana Mahmood. “She’s been amazing – just so practical and getting on with it,” one Burnham insider says, acknowledging this might be unexpected given the differing politics between Mahmood and the mostly “soft-left” figures in Burnham’s inner circle.

“My aim is to create a team and culture where everyone is valued, seen, listened to and can make their mark and make a difference for their constituents,” Burnham recently wrote to all Labour MPs, outlining his plans for leading the party. “That team will be based on the principles of contribution, experience, commitment and will represent the broad church of our party.”

Burnham is sincere in his desire for culture change and knows it will be one of his most important tasks as he assumes power. Yet those words may have inspired false optimism among the people Team Burnham privately see as the worst culprits of the toxic briefing culture that flourished under Keir Starmer. A “broad church” does not mean that people suspected of negative briefings or nastiness towards colleagues will receive jobs in the Burnham regime. Culture change will require some “heads on spikes”, as one insider puts it. Hopes are high for the Burnham premiership that is about to begin, but, on the jobs front at least, some people are going to find themselves disappointed.

[Further reading: Even Labour voters are nervous about Ed Miliband]