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Andy Burnham has said he has sought permission to enter the selection process to run as a candidate for the Labour Party in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.
The Greater Manchester mayor said on X: “I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.”
It comes after former minister Andrew Gwynne formally stepped down on Friday on health grounds.
As a directly-elected mayor, Mr Burnham needs to get approval from Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) before entering the race to be the party’s candidate.
In his letter to the NEC, which he shared on social media, Mr Burnham said the decision had been “difficult” but insisted he would support the work of the government “not undermine it” and that he had “passed on this assurance to the Prime Minister”.
Mr Burnham claimed there was now “a direct threat to everything Greater Manchester has always been about from a brand of politics which seeks to pit people against each other”.
He added: “I see this by-election as the front line of that fight for the Manchester way and I feel I owe it to…
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