Prime Minister will have to go even if Burnham loses by-election – Phillips

The Prime Minister will have to go even if Andy Burnham loses the Makerfield by-election, prominent former minister Jess Phillips has said.

Speaking at the Hay Festival on Monday, the Labour MP said she believes there will be a leadership contest regardless of whether Mr Burnham returns to Westminster.

The Greater Manchester mayor, who is viewed as a challenger to Sir Keir Starmer in a potential Labour leadership race, launched his by-election campaign on Friday.

Speaking at the festival, Ms Phillips said she felt “liberated” since resigning as safeguarding minister with a scathing letter accusing the Prime Minister of failing to be “bold”.

She said on Monday: “I can sort of see where Keir Starmer and Keir Starmer’s loyalists come from, in that the idea that we could repair a country so badly broken after years of austerity quite so quickly, is just a lie.

“But then also what he has not done is grab that particular mantle or even actually tell the story.

“I think even if Andy Burnham doesn’t win in Makerfield there will be a change of the Prime Minister,” she added.

“I’ve never been to Wigan in my life, so I have absolutely no idea about the people there, so I shall go and find out.

“But, yes, I imagine Andy Burnham will win it, and I imagine then that the Prime Minister changes.”

Ms Phillips stepped down from her Home Office role earlier this month, joining a string of mostly junior ministers quitting in protest at Sir Keir’s leadership.

She accused him in her letter of failing to act fast enough on violence against women and girls, saying his “desire not to have an argument means we rarely make an argument, leaving opportunities for progress stalled and delayed”.

Elected in Birmingham Yardley in 2015, Ms Phillips has been a vocal campaigner against domestic and sexual violence throughout her time in Parliament.

Her tenure as safeguarding minister attracted controversy, with the Government finding itself at the centre of a row over its handling of an inquiry into grooming gangs last year.

The row saw five members of the inquiry’s victim liaison panel quit in protest against suggestions the probe’s scope could be widened and criticising Ms Phillips directly.

Scores of Labour MPs have called for the Prime Minister to stand down in the wake of an electoral hammering earlier this month across English councils, Wales and Scotland.

Mr Burnham launched his campaign saying “a vote for me in this by-election is a vote to change Labour”.

Speaking at the Hay Festival, Ellie Chowns, the Westminster leader of the Green Party, suggested the party would not be “(throwing) the kitchen sink” at their campaign in the constituency.

Chris Kennedy was announced to be running for the Greens on Thursday, but the party confirmed he had dropped out some nine hours later, citing “personal and family reasons”.

Ms Chowns said she did not agree with calls from within her party not to contest the by-election, in order to give Mr Burnham a better chance of victory.

She said: “If Andy Burnham thinks he can’t win against Reform unless everybody else steps out of the election, then that’s not exactly the messiah that the Labour Party perhaps feels it needs.

“We are a political party, we exist to stand in every election.

“In this particular constituency, there is a question, I think, about the extent to which any party might throw the kitchen sink at a campaign.

“We threw the kitchen sink at Gorton and Denton, and we won it. Makerfield is a different kettle of fish.”