STEPHEN GLOVER: The coming week will be Andy Burnham's biggest test. But this is how he's already giving every indication he's not up to the job

The mist is clearing, and we can at last see the figure of Andy Burnham stumbling across the bog as he really is.If you had hoped that he is a man of action, someone who knows his own mind and is good at making hard decisions, you are going to be disappointed.Our new Prime Minister, who no one other than the voters of Makerfield elected, turns out to be all talk and no trousers, as they say in the North, of which Andy has absurdly been styled ‘King’.Yesterday he went on BBC1 Breakfast to reveal his latest thoughts about the early release of prisoners. You’d think he was Bismarck from all the fuss they were making of him. He told us that he had ‘spent the summer turning over every single stone’. Heroic work, then.In fact, he was only putting right a problem of Labour’s own making, which a more astute politician would have spotted weeks ago. The Government no longer intends to let prisoners convicted of manslaughter out of jail early. This category includes two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper. Good.But, although Mr Burnham did not mention this, some stalkers and domestic abusers currently in jail under a scheme called Imprisonment for Public Protection will be free to walk our streets.What has he actually achieved in the six weeks since he wrested the seals of office from Sir Keir Starmer? Very little. He has ducked, and continues to duck, the three main issues facing the country: defence, soaring welfare costs and uncontrolled immigration. Our new Prime Minister, who no one other than the voters of Makerfield elected, turns out to be all talk and no trousers Despite all Burnham’s brave talk in Kyiv, the new Chancellor won’t be announcing a rise in military spending to 3 per cent of GDP in his Budget on October 28To be sure, there have been feel-good announcements that almost no one will disagree with. The PM has pledged to end ‘rough sleeping’, preferably by Christmas. (Will he?) Bus fares will be slightly cheaper. He has shaved a few pounds off our energy bills. There has also been lots of talk about devolution – more controversial, perhaps, given that so far devolution has hardly been a runaway success – but he has been vague enough not to upset many people.We have had these motherhood-and-apple-pie policies from our likeable new Prime Minister, who is rarely photographed without a smile on his face. Whereas Starmer resembled an ill-at-ease undertaker, Burnham reminds me of the enthusiastic coach of an under-10s football team.Defence is the most glaring omission. A week ago Burnham was in Kyiv, gushing support for President Zelensky, and promising to share classified blueprints so that Ukraine can build its own Storm Shadow missiles.He certainly succeeded in goading the Kremlin, which claimed he would ‘add fuel to the fire’, and threatened to strike British military targets. Thank God, I thought, that the Government is about to increase our inadequate defence budget.But then it was reported that, despite all Burnham’s brave talk in Kyiv, the new Chancellor won’t be announcing a rise in military spending to 3 per cent of GDP in his Budget on October 28.John Healey resigned as Defence Secretary in June because Starmer wouldn’t commit himself to 3 per cent. Now that he is ensconced in the Treasury, with Andy Burnham breathing down his neck, he is singing an entirely different tune.A pathway to 3 per cent will be set out in next year’s spending review. In other words, Burnham and Healey are kicking the issue into the adjoining field even while the PM is playing the dangerous game of tweaking Putin’s tail.This really is a disgraceful dereliction at a time when Nato allies such as Poland and Germany are rapidly increasing their defence spending. What hope is there for us if the Prime Minister is unable to make up his mind on a matter of national security?It is a similar story on welfare reform, which is likely to be delayed until next year at the earliest, according to leaks. Burnham once more can’t decide what to do. He knows that many Labour backbenchers don’t want the spiralling welfare budget to be reined in.No 10 is happy to wait for two reviews of the welfare state, one by Sir Stephen Timms, the social security minister, the other by former Labour Cabinet minister Alan Milburn. Sir Stephen is the sort of chap who would fill out a form in triplicate on hearing the word ‘Fire!’The third issue about which the Prime Minister has done or said virtually nothing is mass immigration. Some Labour MPs like to give the impression that this has been sorted out. It hasn’t.Home Office data released last week show that a record number of immigrants were granted indefinite leave to remain (ILR) in the year to June 2026, as foreign nationals who arrived during the last Tory administration sought to settle here permanently.In the three months to June 2026 alone, 140,122 immigrants were granted ILR or citizenship. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wants to make most migrants wait ten rather than five years to obtain ILR, and even longer for lower-paid foreign workers or refugees.This seems to be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Ms Mahmood’s reforms probably won’t see the light of day because they are opposed by many Labour MPs, led by Angela Rayner, who has described them as unBritish. Shall we guess what our dithering PM will do?I grant that, after Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Burnham is in some ways a breath of fresh air. But prime ministers are not in the end judged by their ability to ventilate a room.Burnham runs away from difficult decisions. He runs towards eye-catching ones. Hence his latest idea to ban trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.Since the settlers are among the most unpopular people on Earth (even Benjamin Netanyahu is increasingly critical of them) this is a policy that is likely to go down well with almost everyone. It would also have virtually nil effect. It is strictly performative.The other day Burnham explained in a letter to MPs that he would abstain when the assisted dying Bill returns to Parliament. Fair enough. He doesn’t wish to politicise a moral argument.But the reason he gave was very revealing. He wrote that on the question of assisted dying ‘there is no single right position’. That is an argument that abandons moral principle, and suggests that right and wrong shift around according to circumstance.I don’t doubt that, when a decision is easy and popular with his supporters, Burnham will make it. He’ll raise taxes on the wealthy, who are not generally loved, and he’ll probably fleece banks and oil companies for the same reason. The economy will suffer.For a short time after Tony Blair became Labour leader in 1994, the Tories called him ‘Bambi’. They didn’t realise that he was at heart a warmonger, and a vandal who would tear the British constitution apart.In Andy Burnham we have found the true Bambi, down to the doe eyes. This unelected Prime Minister who has been foisted on us, this bogus King of the North and politician without a backbone, lacks the strength and will to make the hard decisions for which this country is crying out.