Labour blocking my bid to be MP was hard to take, says Burnham

Burnham, who has been viewed as a potential leadership rival to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, told BBC Radio Manchester: “It’s hard when something like that happens, it’s really disappointing.”

He added: “What I was offering the party, I think, was an alternative path to the one that the party is now on.

“What I was saying to them was that I think, without being arrogant about it, because of what I’ve contributed to building in Greater Manchester, I was in a strong position to fight back this different type of politics that is trying to come in and trying to win our council seats and come into Greater Manchester in a big way.

“I believed I was probably in a better position than anybody to fight back against that.”

Sir Keir was among eight NEC members who voted to bar Burnham from standing in the by-election, which will take place on 26 February.

In the aftermath, one senior Labour MP told the BBC that Starmer was “running scared” of Burnham although a senior party figure also claimed “no-one is convinced that Andy is coming in to be a team player”.

Burnham and Starmer both later denied reports that the mayor had been told in advance he would not be accepted as a candidate.

Explaining the decision on Sunday, Labour said: “The NEC believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources before the local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd in May.”

It added while the party would be “confident” of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC “could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk”.

Burnham said he had wanted to assure the prime minister he “wasn’t coming in to undermine him or the government, I was coming in to see if I could contribute”.

Burnham added he had a “good conversation” with Sir Keir after he was blocked from standing.

He went on to criticise briefings against him and other elected politicians, adding “anybody paid by the public purse does not get licence to lie”.

He said: “In the aftermath of all of this, I’m not going to be sort of bitter and I’m going to be out there campaigning in the by-election but I am going to call that one thing out.

“I have been 30 years in the Labour Party, it is a hard decision for me to take as I agonised over it but I believed I was making it in the best interests of Greater Manchester.”