Burnham

Andy Burnham has announced he will attempt to return to Westminster after the Labour MP Josh Simons said he will vacate his Makerfield seat in order for Burnham to run in a byelection. It follows a day of breaking news in which the health secretary, Wes Streeting, resigned, saying he has lost confidence in the prime minister, and Angela Rayner announced she had been cleared by the HMRC. Where does this leave Keir Starmer, the leadership of the Labour party, and the country? Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor would need to win byelection to launch leadership challenge against Starmer• UK politics live – latest updatesAndy Burnham now has a route back to parliament after a Greater Manchester MP announced he would stand down, triggering a byelection, and putting Burnham in contention to become the next Labour leader.The Greater Manchester mayor has been seeking to return to parliament for months, but was blocked by Keir Starmer from running in the Gorton and Denton byelection at the start this year, to the anger of his supporters inside the party. Continue reading...

Now former health secretary and Manchester mayor could be about to make an unlikely deal to oust Keir StarmerWho said the Labour party needs “a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism … It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates”?Until this morning, almost everyone would have attributed those words to Andy Burnham, the mayor or Greater Manchester. But those were the closing paragraphs of the former health secretary Wes Streeting’s resignation letter, a cadence so similar to Burnham’s own that it cannot be accidental. Continue reading...

Burnham’s backers understood to be lobbying Labour’s NEC who warn against Wes Streeting ‘coronation’UK politics live – latest updatesThe rules governing Labour party leadership contests should “not be tweaked” to allow Andy Burnham to run, a member of the party’s National Executive Committee has said.With the health secretary preparing to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer on Thursday, if he can secure the support of enough MPs to trigger a contest, allies of Burnham have warned against a “coronation” for Wes Streeting as the next prime minister. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor seeks to reassure his supporters after potential seats for him fail to materialiseAndy Burnham has told Labour MPs they should hold the line and that he has options to return to parliament after several seats identified by allies of the Greater Manchester mayor failed to materialise.Two seats his backers had described as “nailed on” as recently as Monday night are now out of contention after the MPs concerned got cold feet. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Marie Rimmer backs Keir Starmer and deals blow to Greater Manchester mayor’s byelection hopesUK politics live – latest updatesAndy Burnham’s hopes of returning to Westminster were dealt a blow on Tuesday as the Merseyside MP whose seat had been named by key allies for a potential byelection said she would not stand down and backed Keir Starmer to stay in office.Marie Rimmer, the MP for St Helens South and Whiston, said the mayor of Greater Manchester had not spoken to her “in years” – and that her priority was to avoid the chaos of a leadership contest. Continue reading...

With Starmer under growing pressure to resign, Growth and Tribune groups put forward ideas for policy revampsUK politics live – latest updatesGroups connected to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, and the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, have proposed large changes to government policy, giving a sense of how the country may change should either one succeed Keir Starmer.The Growth Group, allied to Streeting, and the Tribune group of Labour MPs, allied to Burnham, have published competing visions for how Britain should run, including sweeping tax cuts, help with the cost of living and big reforms to government machinery. Continue reading...

Some MPs accuse Greater Manchester mayor of undermining local election campaign message over Change:Now event Politics live – latest updatesAndy Burnham’s decision to appear at a progressive rally alongside prominent Green and Liberal Democrat figures has sparked anger among some Labour MPs, who have accused him of undermining their local election message.The Greater Manchester mayor, who is seen as one of the most likely challengers to Keir Starmer, will be speaking at the Change:Now event this month organised by the left-wing group Compass. Continue reading...

Leadership options in focus amid fears over election losses, with allies of Greater Manchester mayor stepping up preparations for a comebackAndy Burnham has plan to return to Westminster ‘within weeks’, allies sayWhen the eyes of Westminster were on the committee rooms and voting lobbies of parliament this week, Keir Starmer’s political future was being decided elsewhere.Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner were buttering up Labour MPs in the Strangers’ Bar in parliament as colleagues spoke of their “existential” fear about the crucial elections next week. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Greater Manchester mayor said to have identified seats where MPs would step aside to allow leadership bidAndy Burnham has a credible plan to return to Westminster “within weeks”, his allies have said, with the Greater Manchester mayor expected to use a byelection fight to set out a new agenda for government.Burnham, who was blocked by Labour’s ruling body from running in February’s Gorton and Denton byelection, has identified several seats where MPs are prepared to step aside for his leadership bid. Continue reading...

Labour MPs are reportedly urging colleagues to demand Burnham’s return in order to position him as Starmer’s eventual successorIf Keir Starmer is looking for a saviour to keep him in No 10 after the May elections and the scandal of the Mandelson saga, there is an unlikely figure in the north-west who might help him – temporarily.It has been the week where the prime minister seemed at his most isolated. But Labour MPs told the Guardian they were urging colleagues not to depose Starmer next month, and were instead preparing to demand that Andy Burnham return to parliament in order to succeed him before the next general election. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor says the party ‘would always do well to listen to what Angela has got to say’Good morning. Keir Starmer has been handling the Iran war reasonably well, according to the consensus view at Westminster, and certainly better than Nigel Farage and Kemi Badenoch, who have been in contortions over whether they do or do not support Donald Trump. But this has not altered the fundamental, big-picture assessment of British politics, which is that he is deeply unpopular with voters and that Labour can’t win the next election if he remains in charge. This may be a flawed analysis – consensus views often are – but it is what many Labour MPs think, which is why a question mark hovers over Starmer’s leadership.And that is why Angela Rayner’s speech last night, at a private meeting with the soft-left Mainstream group, are so significant. She did not explicitly call for new leadership, but she did convey that message implicity – and more bluntly than in any of her other interventions since she resigned as deputy PM in September last year.It is down to us to rebuild this nation and this party – the question is are we up for this fight? I know we in this room are.As a party, and as a movement, we cannot hide, we cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline. There’s no safe ground and we’re running out of time.We cannot talk about earning a settlement if we keep moving the goalposts. Because moving the goalposts undermines our sense of fair play. It’s un-British.Let us be a country that has sustainable economic migration rules, but one that upholds the British values we want all who live here to respect. Not special treatment. But the stability and a fair pathway forward after the sacrifices many have made to build a lawful life in the UK.We’ve got to, all of us, haven’t we, work together to pull together a plan that turns the country around …I understand the frustration people feel. We heard that at the by-election, and of course, Angela is reflecting some of that.I think where I would agree, and I think everybody across government would agree, is sharing an impatience with the pace of change, and that applies to every single one of us.And I get the sense, I haven’t read the full context of Angela’s remarks, but I get the sense that that frustration is actually what is running through her remarks. It absolutely runs through every government minister as well. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor says Rayner’s criticism of planned immigration changes, which she called ‘un-British’, echoed ‘moral questions’Andy Burnham has backed stark criticism of the direction of Keir Starmer’s government by Angela Rayner after she said the very survival of the Labour party was at stake.Rayner, the former deputy prime minister and an influential backbencher, used a speech on Tuesday night to warn that the prime minister “cannot go through the motions” in the face of declining support. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester mayor hopes yet-to-be-built £250m course could provide ‘lasting legacy’ for north of EnglandFrom the fairways of Rome to the greens of Versailles, could the world’s most prestigious golf tournament be heading to Bolton?Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, has announced a bid to bring the Ryder Cup to the north of England for the first time in nearly 60 years. Continue reading...