Andy Burnham has said Labour MPs are privately urging him to challenge Keir Starmer to become prime minister, but any such move would have to be “more than a personality contest”. In an intervention likely to increase speculation that he is seeking a return to Westminster, Burnham accused Downing Street of creating a “climate of fear” and spreading “alienation and demoralisation” among MPs.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph before the Labour conference this weekend, the Greater Manchester mayor said that while he was not “plotting to get back”, the leadership was “for other people in Westminster to make a decision about”. It came a day after a separate interview with the New Statesman where Burnham said wholesale change was needed to see off an existential threat to the party.
The former New Labour minister and ex-MP for Leigh has made a series of high-profile interventions this week that have been interpreted as an indication that he is mulling a challenge to Starmer in what would be his third run at the Labour leadership. Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester on Thursday morning, Burnham said he had told Labour MPs backing him that any leadership race has “got to be about more than a personality contest … it’s got to be about a plan for the country”.
He said he would not “speak in code”, “toe the line” or “be quiet” about issues important to Greater Manchester and would “speak directly”. He declined to explicitly say whether he would launch a leadership bid if he gained enough backing from MPs, saying he was “not in the business of answering hypotheticals”. He dismissed suggestions that his interventions were a disservice to Labour or distracting him from his job in Manchester, saying he had been working with ministers “behind the scenes” on the Hillsborough law.
Asked about Burnham’s remarks on Thursday morning, Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said Starmer had got used to people “taking potshots” at him during opposition before he “picked this party up off the floor and led us to a record-breaking election victory”. Speaking to Sky News, Reed added that Burnham was doing a good job as mayor and was entitled to his view. Reed also pointed out that Burnham had committed to serving a full term as mayor of Greater Manchester, lasting until May 2028.
Burnham set out his thoughts on how to “turn the country around”, including with higher council tax on some homes in southern England and a 50p top rate of income tax. He also called for more public control of housing, energy, water and rail, backed proportional representation and signalled a willingness to work with the Liberal Democrats and Jeremy Corbyn. In an interview with the Guardian, Burnham threw his weight behind calls to scrap the two-child benefit limit, calling it an abhorrent policy which represents the “worst of Westminster”.
