Keir Starmer says he wants to offer Burnham ‘big role’ in government to avoid leadership contest – UK politics live
Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit, Keir Starmer said it would be wrong for Labour to hold a leadership challenge ahead of a likely election to replace Andy Burnham as mayor of Greater Manchester . If Burnham wins the byelection tomorrow (as all the constituency polls suggest he will), he will resign his mayoral job and there will be an election to replace him. It would probably take place on Thursday 30 July. Bev Craig, the leader of Manchester city council, is tipped to be Labour’s candidate. Burnham won easily in the last mayoral election two years ago, but he is personally very popular in the north-west in a way that Craig isn’t. Reform UK trounced Labour in the local elections in May, and holding the mayoralty will be a tough challenge for the party. Asked about a potential leadership challenge, Starmer told reporters: double quotation mark First and foremost, I want Andy Burnham to win, and that’s why I’ve encouraged activists and members to go up there during the course of the campaign, and they’ll be up there tomorrow helping to get the vote out. Then what happens is we’re immediately tipped into a Manchester mayoral contest byelection, one of the biggest byelections that we’ve ever fought, because of the scale of it. And it’s really important to my mind that the whole of the Labour party and Labour movement focuses on that, which is the next most immediate task. I don’t think there should be a challenge. I think history, particularly the last government, shows that that isn’t a successful way for a government to behave. But Starmer also did repeat his intention to fight a challenge if there is one. double quotation mark If there is a challenge, then I intend to fight. I’m not going to walk away from that, and I’ve been clear and consistent about that. Keir Starmer speaks to the media this morning on the sidelines of the G7 summit, in Thonon-les-Bains, France. Photograph: Isabel Infantes/Pool Reuters/AP
Starmers move feels like political damage control. Offering Burnham a big role to avoid a leadership challenge is essentially admitting Labours leadership is fragile. If Burnhams popularity is that strong, why not let him lead instead of creating artificial obstacles? This smacks of internal party politics over genuine governance.