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Andy Burnham is seeking to stand as a Labor candidate in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-elections, which could allow him to challenge Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer for leadership of the Labor Party.
In a statement on social media on Saturday, the Mayor of Greater Manchester confirmed he had written to the ruling party’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to apply to be Labor’s candidate for the seat, which is also in Greater Manchester.
It will be up to the NEC to decide whether Burnhamlong seen as a potential challenger to the embattled prime minister, is allowed to run.
Starmer’s allies are believed to hold the balance of power within the NEC and could try to block Burnham’s candidacy. However, in the past 24 hours current and former deputy party leaders Lucy Powell and Angela Rayner have said the decision should be left to local party members.
“The NEC will now be under a lot of pressure,” said one Labor MP.
Burnham, who was previously a Labor MP and mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, said his attempt to return to Parliament had been a “difficult decision”.
He wanted to stand up to promote the “Manchester way” of “living together”, as the city is threatened by a new form of right-wing populist politics, he said.
“I have come to the conclusion that this is the time to stand up as loudly as possible for what we stand for and what we have built in this city over many generations,” he said, adding that Manchester would not be able to realize its ambitions without “similar changes at a national level”.
Burnham welcomed elements of the Labor government’s programme, including nationalizing the railways, but said that at Westminster he could “use my experience to help it go further and faster”.
He did not mention any protest plans Sir Keir Starmer of the leadership of the Labor Party. “I would be there to support the work of the government, not to undermine it, and I have conveyed this assurance to the Prime Minister,” he wrote.
Burnham regularly tops polls among Labor members and the public about the most popular replacements for Starmer, who has presided over months of poor poll results and a series of embarrassing U-turns.
Privately, he has been discussing a possible challenge with MPs for months, which would only be possible if he returned to Westminster. It was also looking for potential seats to achieve this via a by-election.
That opportunity opened up this week when the Gorton and Denton poll was triggered after sitting MP Andrew Gwynne announced he was retiring for medical reasons.
Labor’s NEC, which will select the shortlist of potential candidates for the seat, last night gave candidates until the end of the weekend to apply. He also indicated that any serving mayor must request “express authorization” to do so before 5 p.m. Saturday.
In his letter to the NEC, Burnham said he shared his “reasoning” for seeking permission to stand, emphasizing that it would be in Manchester’s best interests.
Burnham is likely to face criticism that her decision would trigger a costly by-election for Greater Manchester mayor, which is likely to be vigorously contested by Reform UK.
“Burnham’s support base within the party is not as wide as he might hope – there are plenty of MPs who don’t think this drama is helpful, even if they are frustrated with the way things are going under Starmer,” another Labor MP said. “Some even want the Prime Minister to take the hit now by blocking it to end months of blow-by-blow drama.”
Additional reporting by David Sheppard
