Labour’s Andy Burnham finally admitted UK politics’ worst-kept secret tonight as he confirmed he would run to become prime minister if he won the Makerfield by-election.
The Greater Manchester mayor has previously heavily hinted but ducked out of confirming he would stand against Sir Keir Starmer if he wins a Westminster seat on June 18.
This afternoon he told the Guardian he was ‘100 per cent’ focused on the by-election battle, seen as a straight fight between him and Reform’s Robert Kenyon, and branded speculation about how he would run the country as ‘weird’.
But he also went on to outline how he would bring more left-wingers into his cabinet and prioritise sorting out the creaking social care system.
Then tonight, in a by-election special edition of the BBC’s Question Time in the Greater Manchester seat he confirmed that he would go for the top job if he won, while making ‘no assumptions’ about the by-election result.
After a member of the audience said ‘you have to be hidden under a rock to think maybe you aren’t going to go for the leadership’, Mr Burnham said: ‘I can’t do anything unless I’m lucky enough to get the support of people here. But if I get your support, I would seek to represent you at the highest possible level and give this constituency maximum power and influence.’
‘I think Wes Streeting seems to have launched a leadership contest, so if that is running, I would seek to join it.’
But he faced pushback from Mr Kenyon who said voters wanted more ‘normal people in politics, people who care about the place, people who live in the place, and people who want to stay here and not use it as a stepping stone for other things.’
In the hour-long special Mr Burnham also weighed into the political row over the murder of teenager Henry Nowak, who died after police treated him as the perpetrator of a racist attack, instead of a stabbing victim.
The Greater Manchester mayor has previously heavily hinted but ducked out of confirming he would stand against Sir Keir Starmer if he wins a Westminster seat on June 18
But he faced pushback from Reform’s Robert Kenyon who said voters wanted more ‘normal people in politics … who want to stay here and not use it as a stepping stone for other things’
Mr Burnham said police forces had to change the way they work to ‘step back from this possibility that the police could be seen as two-tier’.
He cited the example of Greater Manchester Police chief constable Sir Stephen Watson who refused to ‘take the knee’ for Black Lives Matter’ and phased out police cars decked in rainbow Pride flags.
Mr Burnham added: ‘I think it’s right that the government are reviewing this guidance, because I don’t think this guidance that was issued related to the Police Race Action Plan has got it right…
‘There needs to be a common sense approach to law and order, and that is what we have done in Greater Manchester Police.’
Mr Burnham had earlier risked attracting the wrath of Brexiteers when he suggested the UK may not have left the EU if he was Labour leader a decade ago.
The Greater Manchester Mayor told the New Statesman the 2016 referendum could have ‘played out differently’ if he had not lost heavily to Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership election the previous year.
He also used the interview with the Guardian to lay out his plans for Government, including repeating his hope of seeing the UK rejoin in his lifetime, while warning against re-running the 2016 referendum.
His comments will fuel concern in Labour circles that the former minister is getting carried away by his own hype.
He was brought down to earth on Question Time by Conservative candidate Michael Winstanley, who told him: ‘It’s not that long ago, Andy, that you were telling everybody that this (Greater Manchester mayor) was the greatest job in the world and that you were going to say out your full term, but we’re here halfway through.
‘It’s less than two years since Josh (Simons) was elected as my member of Parliament here in Makerfield. And I’m actually quite disgusted, really, and sad that we’re having this by election foisted upon us.’
Labour allies of Sir Keir have poked fun at Mr Burnham ahead of the expected leadership challenge, while others are said to be resisting pleas to campaign in Makerfield.
Business Secretary Peter Kyle suggested he could be styled as Labour’s ‘Queen of the South … which I’m very comfortable with’
Business Secretary Peter Kyle told a Westminster event that ‘entitlement is not a qualification for leadership’, and went on to joke about the mayor’s ‘King of the North’ moniker.
The Hove and Portslade MP, who is gay, suggested he could be styled as Labour’s ‘Queen of the South … which I’m very comfortable with’.
He added that British politics rewards ‘the wrong behaviour’ as he cautioned against crediting those who ‘want to thrust themselves forward at moments of instability’.
In a message directed to his fellow Labour MPs – amid their ongoing angst at Sir Keir’s leadership – Mr Kyle added that ‘leadership is more than one person’.
‘If you’re running a country, leadership is a government-wide affair,’ he said.
‘I don’t think we’ve learned the lessons of the Tory party in government, where every time there was a problem… there was only one solution, and that’s changing the leader at the top.‘
