The UKs incoming prime minister, Andy Burnham, is a far-left human windsock

Who is Andy Burnham? It’s something Anglophiles the world over will be asking next week, when the newly elected Labour MP becomes prime minister of the United Kingdom.The trouble is, I’m not sure even Andy Burnham knows the answer to that question.Burnham is about to become my country’s seventh prime minister in 10 years – a level of churn that is beginning to make Giorgia Meloni’s Italy, which once had a reputation for changing its government more often than some would change their underwear, look like a haven of stability.But Brits hoping for a fresh start, perhaps even a bit of vision and principle to steer us through these troubled times, are bound to be disappointed.

Like Keir Starmer, whose premiership was defined by so many policy u-turns he might as well have been doing donuts, Burnham is the walking, talking embodiment of the Groucho Marx line: “These are my principles.If you don’t like them, well, I have others.”From across the pond, it might seem like Burnham has come out of nowhere.

He has been in the House of Commons representing Makerfield for little more than four weeks.His express intent in running was to topple Starmer and snatch the keys to Downing Street.In truth, he’s been loitering in the corridors of power for almost three decades.

He was first elected to parliament in 2001, serving as a minister under Tony Blair and in the cabinet of Gordon Brown.He made two unsuccessful tilts at the leadership – losing last time around to crusty left-winger Jeremy Corbyn – before he remade himself as mayor of Greater Manchester, where he served for nine years, earning him the obsequious moniker, the King of the North.Burnham is now trying to veer left – declaring an end to “neoliberalism,” calling for “more public control” of water and energy companies and posturing against Israel.

This is the same Burnham who was once at the heart of New Labour’s “centrist” takeover of the party and said, when he last tried to become...