THE last week of Westminster was dominated by the replacement of Keir Starmer as Prime Minister with former mayor of Manchester, Andy Burnham.

I have said publicly that I do not think that the time was right for a leadership change and, as I do not know Andy Burnham, I was one of about two dozen Labour MPs that did not sign his nomination papers. I want to make clear though, the fact I didn’t sign them does not mean that I’m anti-Burnham. It means that I don’t know him or his politics.

There will be those that jump on this and say: ‘ahh. Nor do we. So, we need a General Election.’ But, under the democratic system we have in the UK, that is not the case. We do not have a presidential system where we elect a single figurehead. We have a parliamentary system where we elect a political party to serve a full term regardless of who the Prime Minister is.

On the nominations, I am quite an old-fashioned sort of MP – I highly value and prioritise my constituency work, even if that comes at the cost of time spent pushing for promotion into positions within government, and I believe that leadership and loyalty in any walk of life must be earned and not simply passed from one leader to the next, like a pepper pot. Whilst I respect my colleagues who may have another view, I think that in this ‘swipe right’ culture, loyalty and stability have increasing value.

So, what to make of Andy Burnham? I did go and meet him prior to the nominations closing as I wanted to discuss matters important to the constituency and he politely shook my hand but didn’t have time to talk. I wanted to raise with him the fact that, as the furthest southerly Labour MP in the UK, I wanted reassurances that he’d be a Prime Minister for all corners of the UK, including ours, and not just the north of England, which is what we’ve heard so much about in recent weeks.

That reassurance may still come and Andy Burnham’s focus on devolution, if through a mechanism that was acceptable to the people of Cornwall, may be a huge opportunity for us. But imposing a mayor, whether through a Combined Mayoral Authority or as a Single Strategic Authority, I will resist both publicly and privately. In Cornwall we have a stable unitary system that has experience managing large budgets and do not need a wasteful and potentially disruptive parallel mayoral system.

As well as devolution, in areas such as housing, water company public control and buses, Andy Burnham’s comments have sounded encouraging. But on international affairs and commitments to Cornwall’s distinct sectors including renewable energy and critical minerals, I will be keeping a very close eye on who he appoints to the key positions.

There is talk that Jonny Reynolds may be coming back to the Department of Trade and Industry. If that is the case, that would be good news for Cornish industry.