Andy Burnham planning return to Westminster ‘within weeks’ – reports
David Lynch, Press Association Political Correspondent
Andy Burnham has a plan to return to Westminster “within weeks” in a bid to challenge Sir Keir Starmer, according to reports.
The Labour Mayor of Greater Manchester has identified several seats where MPs are prepared to step aside, triggering a by-election which could pave the way for his return to Parliament, The Guardian newspaper said.
The newspaper also reported Mr Burnham’s supporters are attempting to avoid a formal leadership challenge against the Prime Minister, and hope to kickstart a process for him to stand down after what are expected to be disastrous results for Labour in the May 7 elections.
Mr Burnham was earlier this year blocked by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, after the previous MP Andrew Gwynne stood down, citing health reasons.
The NEC said worries about the costs of running a new Manchester mayoral elections and fear that Reform could take the mayoralty were behind the decision to block Mr Burnham.
He is now reported to be lining up an “impressive” candidate to replace him as mayor, who The Guardian said was not a sitting MP.
Mr Burnham, who served as health secretary in Gordon Brown’s government, is also said to be preparing a progressive policy platform for Government.
Constituencies across Merseyside and Greater Manchester are reportedly among those where MPs are prepared to stand aside for Mr Burnham, The Guardian said.
Earlier this week, in an interview with the BBC, Labour MP for Bootle Peter Dowd rejected suggestions he was preparing to make way for Mr Burnham.
‘Madness’
Elsewhere, Housing Secretary Steve Reed warned it would be “madness” for Labour to consider ousting Sir Keir.
“Loyalty in politics is a very important commodity,” he told the Times.
Mr Reed added: “If you are fighting each other then you are not fighting the common enemy. The common enemy here is the cost-of-living crisis, the lack of investment coming into our country, the fate of our high streets.
“We are always better as a party when we face outwards… when we turn in on ourselves, we’re basically telling the British public that we’re making ourselves irrelevant.”
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Never liked solicitors and not a fan of Starmer, but next week the current government leadership enters it’s 3rd year of a possible 4 or 5. The increasing demands of an underperforming public mean those decade + leaderships of the past will no longer happen, so a single term for Starmer in a decade of 5 Prime Ministers. Burnham knows his only chance of getting his portrait on those Nr 10 stairs is a cuckoo take-over of someone else’s general election success. He could of course wait a year or two and stand to lead the Labour party into the… Read more »
I like Andy and it would be good to have him back in the cabinet leading on constitutional reform. But the idea that he or anyone else is a saviour in waiting completely ignores the problem. The UK is ungovernable. And it will remain so until the constitution and systems of government are completely reformed and modernised to the point that they’re completely unrecognisable. Everything must be changed. It’s literally what people are shouting.
Right now the least worst candidate is a boring manager who’s disliked by both sides in equal measures. Anything else stokes division.
Actually according to youGov Burnham has the highest popularity rating of any British politician. So one can hardly call him disliked by both sides.