The self-styled ‘King of the North’, Andy Burnham, has shaken hands with His Majesty King Charles and formed a government in his name. After two years of Keir Starmer’s government, the most hostile to free speech in living memory, the British public ought to let out a sigh of relief that Britain’s most unpopular premier’s reign of terror is over. But that would be at best premature, and at worst foolish.

Over the course of the past two years, the Free Speech Union’s membership has ballooned from 14,000 to more than 45,000. This is a testament to the dire state of free speech in Starmer’s Britain, and another scathing epitaph for his political career. But our new prime minister could prove an even greater enemy of free speech than his predecessor. He is more likeable than Starmer, a more seasoned political operative, and has a track record – albeit disputed – of getting things done. But once that bloke-ish charm wanes, and it will, we should expect to find him just as hostile towards free speech and its advocates as Sir Keir. Nowhere is that clearer than in his attitude to the press.

Burnham has long advocated greater state control over Britain’s media. In 2016, as shadow home secretary under Jeremy Corbyn, he campaigned vehemently for the second part of the Leveson Inquiry. This planned follow-up was scrapped after scores of journalists were cleared of any wrongdoing by the criminal courts. Yet Burnham has gone as far as to say that relitigating all this is ‘non-negotiable’.

His appetite to chasten the press is further evidenced by his close relationship with Hugh Grant, who, with campaign group Hacked Off, has spent the past 15 years demanding state regulation of the media. As reported in the Telegraph, at an event hosted by Hacked Off in June, Grant addressed a group in Westminster on his favourite topic. He lambasted Starmer for not dog-collaring Britain’s press and identified a Burnham premiership as his opportunity to muzzle it. Nathan Sparkes, Hacked Off’s chief executive, also told the Telegraph of his disappointment in Starmer and his hopes of Burnham taking up the mantle.

They have every reason to be hopeful that the UK’s new prime minister will be even more censorious than the last. Byline Times has reported that, back in March, Burnham said he hadn’t ‘given up on [Leveson part two]’ and that he would enact it ‘if he had the influence’. Well, Andy most certainly has the influence now.

Burnham’s disdain for the press was also on display during his furious run-in with Christian Calgie of the Daily Mail during the Makerfield by-election, and his studied avoidance of any press scrutiny throughout the farcical Labour leadership ‘contest’.

Ominously, Burnham’s cabinet is just as hostile to the press as the PM himself. Lucy Powell, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, has stated that she wishes to censor social media platforms such as X and Facebook during election periods, and has identified the Representation of the People Bill – paused until September – as her legislative vehicle for doing so.

Then there’s Lisa Nandy. The culture secretary, and Burnham’s constituency neighbour, is the architect of a truly Orwellian green paper – ‘Watch This Space’. Its objective is to force social-media sites to prioritise the promotion of so-called trustworthy public broadcasters such as the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, while demoting other outlets and independent content creators.

This, of course, is the same minister who recently abandoned X altogether. Nandy told followers the platform, while ‘originally designed for free speech’, now ‘favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate’ and that she did not ‘want to support it’.

All of this bodes ill for Andy Burnham’s premiership. Already, he has been made leader of the Labour Party and prime minister with no election, no public debate and minimal press scrutiny. He is on a collision course with anyone whose views differ from his own.

Max Thompson is the campaigns officer at the Free Speech Union.