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It has been a frenzied 48 hours of Labour leadership speculation after Andy Burnham tried to throw his hat in the ring for a return to parliament.
On Sunday, Starmer’s allies emphatically tried to shut that down, as the NEC’s panel voted 8-1 to block the Manchester mayor’s bid. Only the deputy Labour leader and Greater Manchester MP Lucy Powell supported Burnham, with the chair, home secretary Shabana Mahmood, abstaining (as is custom).
The reasons cited were concerns over the unnecessary costs of having to hold an election for the Manchester metro mayor during important local, Welsh and Scottish elections, and the prospect of Reform running a divisive campaign in the city and greater Manchester region.
Polling suggests that Reform would have a real prospect of taking the region in what would have become a hugely symbolic battle – rather like the fight for the West Midlands mayor which Labour won from the Conservatives ahead of the 2024 election.
But there is also bucketloads of politics in this, as the frenzy over a possible return of Burnham to parliament has shown. In blocking Burnham, the PM and his team have decided it’s better they take the short-term pain and inevitable backlash than allow the psychodrama of the Starmer-Burnham leadership battle to run for weeks in the May elections, drowning out policy discussions and making the party look divided.
That backlash was already under way on Sunday as MPs on the left of the party took to X to vent their frustration. Jon Trickett posted on X: “Strong leaders don’t hide from talent, they make common cause.”
Neil Duncan-Jordan MP said the “authoritarian factionalism of the Labour right is tearing us…
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