这位前首相曾为许多继任者提供过咨询——但伯纳姆或许希望彻底摆脱新工党的过去。托尼·布莱尔在描述他曾经与安迪·伯纳姆进行的一场秘密会面时，听起来似乎有些怀旧，当时伯纳姆想与他讨论竞选党魁一事。然而，在大家过于兴奋之前，请注意，这并非发生在过去几个月内，尽管伯纳姆在那段时间里成功获得了该职位。这个故事要追溯到2010年。那时他还是戈登·布朗内阁中一名年轻且谨慎的成员，显然担心他的老板发现他不仅有意在工党在即将到来的大选中失利时接管权力，还想知道他想向谁寻求建议。
The former PM has been consulted by many who came after him – but Burnham might want to shake his New Labour past once and for all Tony Blair can, apparently, sound slightly wistful when he describes how he once had a cloak-and-dagger meeting with Andy Burnham, who wanted to talk to him about standing for the party leadership. Before anyone gets too excited, however, this wasn’t in the past few months, during which Burnham succeeded in landing the job. The story dates back to 2010. That was when he was a callow member of Gordon Brown’s cabinet and understandably wary of his boss discovering not only his ambition to take over if Labour lost the looming general election, but also from whom he wanted advice.
自那以后，很多事情都发生了变化，尤其是伯纳姆本人。他离开威斯敏斯特又回归的历程——在他自己的叙述中，这几乎成了一次个人救赎的精神朝圣——使他得以摆脱新工党的包袱，这些包袱在他之前竞选党魁（且未成功）时显得尤为沉重。与布朗、埃德·米利班德、杰里米·科尔宾和基尔·斯塔默一样——他们都以不同程度的成功试图与布莱尔保持距离——工党最新的领袖现在也希望与布莱尔保持距离，并且肯定希望他远离本周在利物浦举行的党大会。
Much has changed since then, not least Burnham himself. His journey out of Westminster and back again – which in his telling has become an almost spiritual pilgrimage of personal redemption – enabled him to shed the New Labour baggage that proved so cumbersome during his previous, and unsuccessful, runs for the leadership. In common with Brown, Ed Miliband, Jeremy Corbyn and Keir Starmer – all of whom tried with varying degrees of success to distance themselves from Blair – Labour’s latest leader now also wants to keep Blair at arm’s length, and certainly far away from his party conference in Liverpool this week.
汤姆·鲍德温曾任《泰晤士报》副主编，并曾担任工党高级顾问。他是《基尔·斯塔默：传记》的作者。
Tom Baldwin is a former assistant editor of the Times and a former senior adviser to the Labour party. He is the author of Keir Starmer: The Biography