Can Labour maintain the ‘Burnham bounce’?

However a new UK-wide poll this week put Labour and Reform tied on 26 per cent each. I am sure Andy Burnham will be celebrating this news just one month into his premiership.

In the dying days of Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, Labour managed to slip behind both Reform UK and the Conservatives. Also of note is the fact this week’s poll gave Mr Burnham an approval rating of +14, compared to Sir Keir’s -55 recorded back in June.

The party is undoubtedly enjoying a small resurgence with Mr Burnham in charge, so the question is how can they keep this up?

Survation, the pollsters behind this week’s projections, is already dubious about this. They say public confidence on a number of key issues is already “slipping”, and it will take time before we can tell if the ‘Burnham bounce’ equates to a consistent lead for Labour in the polls.

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This is all food for thought for Scottish Labour as they continue their drawn-out search for a new leader.

It is a choice between Michael Marra MSP and Joe Fagan MSP, and they have a similar problem on their handsve. Every election since devolution, Scottish Labour has fallen further. It is up to whoever wins this leadership contest to turn the party around and make it an election-winning machine.

There has already been some soul-searching on this, with the party admitting it underestimated the popularity of the SNP and perhaps was slightly delusional in how it approached May’s election.

Having Anas Sarwar in charge of the party clearly was not enough to win over the public, so both of the men vying to replace him need to show they can offer something different, and demonstrate they will not be Anas Sarwar 2.0.

So far, I do not think they have done this. They do seem to be clones of what has come before in Scottish Labour, which does not bode well for the task ahead of transforming the party.

They need to try and take advantage of the ‘Burnham bounce’ and see if this can turn around their fortunes in Scotland.

There is another reason Labour is doing well in the polls just now - Reform UK has taken a bit of a beating because of the Westminster investigation into Nigel Farage’s expenses.

Its Scottish leader Malcolm Offord does not seem to think this is too much of an issue. During a show at the Edinburgh Fringe this week, he said: “The left is saying Reform has peaked and is now going to run down.

“My personal view is that there’s going to be a resurgence of Reform in the next couple of years. I do believe that [Nigel Farage] is coming back fighting.”

Given Scottish Labour is tied for second in Holyrood with Reform UK, they also need to capitalise on the fact their popularity is starting to show some cracks. While both Mr Marra and Mr Fagan need to show how they can beat the SNP, they also need to show how they can beat Reform UK.