For the first time in 15 months, Labour is leading the opinion polls. Reform is on the back foot and Andy Burnham is undoubtedly enjoying a honeymoon period. 

Some experts say this is the right moment for the new PM to be brave and call an early election, and admittedly, it looks appealing. Burnham will likely never be this popular again, while Reform may never be this weak. But it is the wrong move. A new electoral mandate won’t solve the issue at heart: no one believes in mandates anymore. 

Britain faces an anti-politics problem, and it runs deeper than low voter turnout and incessant grumblings. The public no longer trusts parties or politicians to deliver on what they promise. This means that even if Burnham called and won an early election, the public would expect him to break whatever promises he makes on the campaign trail.

Rising anti-politics has left the public wanting more control over their governance system, rather than less. Recent from PF Global shows the public would rather vote for their Prime Minister directly (53%) instead of letting their party decide (36%). It feels counterintuitive, but the shift towards direct democracy is less about wanting a new electoral system and more about winning back agency. 

READ MORE: ‘A new politics needs more than a new voting system’

The British public wants more power over decision-making because they are dissatisfied with decision-makers, and they don’t believe the power they have amounts to much. They are clutching at the only lever they know how to pull: voting. But you can give people as many votes as they want; if voting doesn’t lead to anything, the grievance remains. 

The real problem is delivery, not democracy. 

Ultimately, people want to feel heard and see change. It is the pothole argument that we hear time and time again when speaking to voters across the country. 71% of the public say most political discussions are all talk with no real action, and they feel this most acutely in their neighbourhoods. High streets are dying, homelessness is on the rise, and the government wastes its time playing politics, debating the merits of another election and tying themselves into knots as they make U-turn after U-turn. 

And what greater U-turn is there than forcing the public to turn out early again to vote for someone that may not inspire them? The electorate has too often been asked to put their trust in a new government to alleviate the pressures of daily life, and every few years they are let down by yet another prime minister assembling the Cabinet like Ikea furniture without the instruction manual.

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It is true that there is real political danger in leading without a mandate; historically, those who inherit power without a leadership contest are punished for it by their next election. The unopposed successions of Rishi Sunak and Gordon Brown come to mind here. But both were undone by their failures to deliver rather than their unlikely paths to power. 

Burnham needs to think bigger than dealing a blow to Reform. A snap election fought on Reform’s weakness rather than Labour’s strength would ultimately be a campaign about Reform rather than one that inspires British voters. More importantly, it costs Burnham the one thing delivery requires: time. 

Those calling for a snap election fall into the trap of thinking electoral legitimacy will solve the problem of anti-politics. The British public has not given up on democracy, but it has stopped believing democracy pays off. Burnham has the chance to make people believe in government again. He must act on it.

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