Starmer defends blocking Burnham’s bid to become Labour MP
In an attempt to quell growing backlash within his party, the PM appealed for unity as Labour braces for local elections in the spring
Sir Keir Starmer has defended his controversial decision to block Andy Burnham from running for a Westminster seat, saying it would “divert our resources” from Labour’s campaigns in the May elections.
Insisting that Mr Burnham is doing a “great job” as Greater Manchester mayor, the prime minister argued the “battle of our times” was between Labour and Reform UK rather than within his own party despite internal anger over the move to block the leadership rival from standing in Gorton and Denton.
He appealed for unity within the party as it braces for local elections in spring, urging members and MPs to “line up together” to play a part in “a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country”.
It comes after a 10-strong group from Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), including Sir Keir, voted to deny Mr Burnham permission to run in the Greater Manchester by-election at a meeting on Sunday.
Critics have accused Sir Keir and his allies of preventing Mr Burnham’s candidacy for factional reasons, fearing a leadership challenge from the mayor as both Labour’s poll ratings and his personal approval ratings flounder.
Former cabinet minister and backbencher Louise Haigh said on Sunday that Labour’s ruling body should reverse its decision “otherwise I think we’ll all come to regret this”, while Simon Opher MP called the decision an “own goal” for Sir Keir’s advisers.
Meanwhile, left-wing backbencher Kim Johnson has said the prime minister “needs to consider his own position” after the decision to block Mr Burnham from standing, claiming it shows Sir Keir is not putting the country before the party.
“This just plays into the level of factionalism that has been inherent in this party for too long and it has to stop. And Keir Starmer now needs to consider his own position as leader of this party,” she said.
Another backbencher said they expected the party would now lose the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Trade unions also criticised the decision, with the TSSA saying Labour had “lost its way” and the general secretary of Unison, Britain’s largest trade union, saying it was not the way “any democratic organisation should be run”.
It came as Reform leader Nigel Farage said he thinks Mr Burnham not standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election has boosted his party’s chances of winning the seat.
“Burnham would have galvanised the anti-Starmer vote,” he told reporters. “He’d have pushed the turnout up, and I think it would have been very difficult for us to beat him.”
Mr Farage added: “Now he’s not there. I think that the anti-Starmer vote will coalesce around us, so I think our chances have improved massively overnight.”
The prime minister faced questions about the move on Monday on a visit to southwest London with health secretary Wes Streeting, another potential rival who would benefit from the mayor’s absence if he chose to stand in any contest.
Speaking to broadcasters at a health centre in Wimbledon, Sir Keir said: “We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there, and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people.”
He added: “Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win, and resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have.
“And that was the basis of the NEC decision.”
Asked for his response to accusations of cowardice from within his own party, Sir Keir suggested that Labour rules hold that the “presumption” is against “introducing an election which we don’t have to have”.
“The question the NEC had to address was whether we should take the focus away, which it would have done, from the elections in Wales, in Scotland, and the elections we must have by introducing an election which we don’t have to have,” he said.
“And two years ago, the Labour Party changed the rules to say the presumption is really against doing that, because we need to fight where we must fight.”
Pressed on what his message would be to a divided and unsettled party, the prime minister said the party “must never lose sight” of what matters most to the public, namely the cost of living.
He added: “The second thing I’d say is there is a fight, yes, there is a fight, but that fight is with Reform, and we all need to line up together to be in that fight, all playing our part.
“I think that everybody in the Labour Party, everybody who’s a Labour MP, wants to be in that fight, wants to fight alongside all their colleagues in a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country.”
The Greater Manchester mayor said he was “disappointed” by the decision and is “concerned about its potential impact on the important elections ahead of us”.
In a statement on social media, he insisted he would “return with full focus” to his mayoral job on Monday and urged unity in the face of “the divisive politics of Reform”.
But he also claimed that the NEC’s decision had been leaked to the press before he had been informed, something he said “tells you everything you need to know about the way the Labour Party is being run these days”.
Labour sources on Sunday strenuously denied that the party leaked the decision before informing Mr Burnham, dubbing his claims “categorically untrue” and saying they attempted to contact him shortly after the meeting by phone and email.
But the following day, cabinet minister Douglas Alexander admitted that the decision of the NEC may have been leaked to the media.
He told Sky News: “My understanding, and it’s only my understanding, is that the general secretary tried to call Andy immediately after the meeting, but ... it wouldn’t be the first time that what was supposed to be a confidential meeting about internal matters in the Labour party with a large number of people in the room leaked out.
“So if that happened, that’s wrong. I would have hoped that Andy would have been done the courtesy of hearing first and directly. But as I say, having been in plenty of Labour Party meetings where information is leaked out, perhaps that’s what happened.”
The climbdown came after sources close to Mr Burnham claimed The Guardian posted the NEC’s decision on social media at 11.56am, but he wasn’t called by the party until 12.12pm and then emailed at 12.20pm.
Despite the internal party backlash, some backbenchers supported the NEC’s decision, urging the party to avoid infighting and move on to trying to win the by-election.
Phil Brickell, who represents the Greater Manchester constituency of Bolton West, said speculation about Mr Burnham’s candidacy in recent days had “seen the Labour Party quickly turn inward … undermining the PM’s efforts at home and abroad”.
Rugby MP John Slinger said the “quick and clear decision” meant Labour could “move on from the damaging, introspection and psychodrama of the last week” and “pull together” behind the eventual candidate.
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