Andy Burnham's 'Holborn test': Why PM needs Labour by-election win to show he is not anti-London

Andy Burnham needs a Labour victory in the upcoming Holborn and St Pancras by-election if he wants to dispel the notion the new Prime Minister is anti-London.

Why? Let’s look at benefits. The claimant count rate in Mr Burnham ’s Makerfield constituency was 3% in July.

The rate of people on benefits for out-of-work jobseekers was 5.1% in Holborn and St Pancras , according to the House of Commons Library.

But the figures may surprise given the narrative in some quarters that London’s streets are paved in gold, or something similar.

The truth is that London is a divided city, some would say grotesquely divided, with vast areas of wealth cheek-by-jowl with rundown estates.

The fact that Kensington and Chelsea pays more income tax than the whole of Northern Ireland in some years tells its own story.

But there are also many deprived communities in the capital, with hundreds of thousands of people struggling as they are across the country in the relentless cost-of-living crisis.

In Tottenham , the claimant count rate was 9%, Brent East 8.8%, Edmonton and Winchmore Hill 8.2%, Hackney North and Stoke Newington 7.4%, and Lewisham East 7.3%.

Andy Burnham after being declared the winner of the Makerfield by-election PA Wire On his victory at the Makerfield by-election in June, Andy Burnham proclaimed that he would be driven by the “Makerfield test”.

He stressed: “A Makerfield test at the heart of British politics will make sure that the places Westminster has neglected will now get fairness.”

But now that he is Prime Minister he needs to govern for Makerfield but also, to use his own phrase, for “every postcode” in Britain.

That is not to dispute that the UK is an over-centralised country and that the regions could benefit from more power to make better use of increased investment.

However, already a feeling is starting to take hold among some voters in the capital that Mr Burnham is anti-London, as he takes the axe to thousands, if not tens of thousands of Whitehall jobs.

Steve Reed, the MP for Streatham and Croydon North sacked by Mr Burnham as Communities Secretary, has spoken out about this after a by-election this summer in his constituency.