Britain’s PM-in-waiting is right that the country has been failed by 40 years of neoliberalism. There will be obstacles, but he must embrace radicalism

Of all the many prime ministers who have walked through the doors of 10 Downing Street in the past decade, the one Andy Burnham resembles most is Liz Truss. Both had a view of what was going wrong with the economy. Both wanted to break with the politics of managed decline. Both had ambitious ideas for what needed to be done.

Truss, of course, came to grief within weeks of becoming prime minister, after her tax-cutting mini-budget was brutally rejected by the financial markets. The big question for Burnham is whether he can deliver on his agenda without suffering the same fate. He can, but it won’t be easy.

Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist

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