{"id":148941,"date":"2025-09-20T08:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T08:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148941\/"},"modified":"2025-09-20T08:27:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T08:27:07","slug":"andy-burnham-the-man-who-would-be-king-labour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/148941\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham, the man who would be king | Labour"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Andy Burnham<\/a> addressed a gala dinner this week, he was as coy as he could have been in a week when speculation about his future ambitions were in overdrive. \u201cI love this job,\u201d the mayor of Greater Manchester said. \u201cI am very happy where I am. I have no ambition to be \u2026 ambassador to Washington.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a gag that got a big laugh. Burnham has never played the game of pretending that he doesn\u2019t seek to enter No 10. But he also does not give the standard ambitious politician\u2019s response of saying that no vacancy is available.<\/p>\n

Instead, he takes a more honest approach: that he would not have run twice to be leader of the Labour party if he didn\u2019t want the job. Over the years, he has left Keir Starmer<\/a> in no doubt that he hopes to one day to succeed him.<\/p>\n

But no one \u2013 including Burnham \u2013 thought the question would come this soon. Starmer\u2019s government has plunged in popularity, Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform is on the rise, a huge Commons rebellion on welfare has weakened the prime minister \u2013 and three scandals in a fortnight have seen a deputy leader and ambassador depart.<\/p>\n

After a summer dominated by Farage, more and more MPs have begun to believe their salvation lies north. They range from socialist MPs who admired Burnham\u2019s anti-factionalism, to centrist new-intake MPs who see what he has done for growth in Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis politics are now firmly at the progressive heart of the Labour<\/a> party,\u201d one Labour insider said.<\/p>\n

His closest friend in politics these days, the mayor of Liverpool city region, Steve Rotheram, says the last seven years have been the making of Burnham. \u201cI\u2019ve known him for 18 years. I saw the way he started to shape politics once he left Westminster,\u201d he said. \u201cBefore that, politics was starting to shape him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neal Lawson, the chief executive of the thinktank Compass, which co-founded the new Labour grouping Mainstream, which Burnham has endorsed, said the mayor now \u201cfeels comfortable in his own skin and beliefs. I think that\u2019s instantly attractive whether you\u2019re on the left or the right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham on a Bee Network bus. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA Media<\/p>\n

He believes that Burnham is the most plausible successor should Starmer fail. \u201cThere is no perfect leader, but in the existential crisis we\u2019re facing with the threat of the far right and the decline of the Labour party, a good leader is enough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Allies say Burnham is ready to run, and is just waiting for the right opportunity.<\/p>\n

Burnham v the machine<\/p>\n

There are still huge hurdles for the so-called \u201cking of the north\u201d to lead an army south to take Westminster \u2013 but there are potential openings. Burnham would need a parliamentary seat as a first step towards a potential leadership run.<\/p>\n

There was a seat which had been identified. The Guardian understands that the Gorton and Denton MP, Andrew Gwynne, who was suspended from Labour and now sits as an independent, had applied on grounds of ill health for medical retirement from the MPs pension fund. However, sources said that he had then not proceeded with the claim. It is unclear why. Gwynne has not responded to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

Starmer and Burnham at No 10 Downing Street during a meeting between the PM and regional mayors. Photograph: Ian Vogler\/Daily Mirror\/PA<\/p>\n

Burnham is said to have told one well-placed MP earlier this year that he and Gwynne had reached an agreement. But his allies deny that he has had any conversations with MPs about stepping down to make way for him. \u201cThere is no pact,\u201d one insisted.<\/p>\n

Parliamentary sources suggested there could be other opportunities on the horizon, with at least two Manchester MPs sacked during the reshuffle said to feel disgruntled towards the leadership. \u201cYou close one door, another one opens,\u201d a source said.<\/p>\n

The next hurdle Burnham faces is far greater: he would have no guarantee of the nomination should he decide to try to return to Westminster in a byelection.<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s ambitions are not the only reason he would face a struggle against the machine. There is a deeply fractious relationship between Burnham and the prime minister.<\/p>\n

Starmer was Burnham\u2019s deputy when he was shadow home secretary. In 2020, Starmer travelled up to Manchester to ask for support with his leadership bid, according to the biography of Starmer by Tom Baldwin. The mayor said no. He felt he should throw his weight behind one of the two local MPs standing, Rebecca Long-Bailey or Lisa Nandy.<\/p>\n

Starmer, who, according to friends, does not like asking for things, was furious. The relationship has not recovered, but the animosity was deepened by the Labour conference of 2021, when Starmer was struggling during the Tories\u2019 \u201cvaccine bounce\u201d.<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s face was everywhere, hinting at his leadership ambitions. \u201cIt was intolerable,\u201d the aide said. Burnham at the time said anyone offended should \u201cbe less sensitive, I guess\u201d about his attempts to start conversations about the party\u2019s lack of vision.<\/p>\n

Now, as Starmer\u2019s Labour government struggles against an insurgent right, Burnham has been at the front of the launch of Mainstream, calling for \u201ca more inclusive, less factional way of running the party\u201d. It is designed to press for change in the way Labour operates, though it could be turned into a leadership vehicle.<\/p>\n

Another complication: Burnham\u2019s selection as a candidate \u2013 should a byelection occur \u2013 is in the hands of Labour\u2019s national executive committee.<\/p>\n

Starmer\u2019s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, has been able to ruthlessly control selections up until the election. But blocking Burnham would be a different magnitude of controversy \u2013 and Lucy Powell, a close ally of Burnham, will take a spot on the NEC if she becomes deputy leader. His fate, however, would ultimately determined by a three-person NEC panel \u2013 who could be chosen for their loyalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it\u2019s possible to block him. They would just take a huge political hit doing so,\u201d one sceptical MP said. \u201cLetting Andy Burnham in after caving to pressure from their own moaning MPs, just to have him mount a leadership challenge would be very on-brand for this inept No 10.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if Burnham does win any selection, in the current climate, Reform UK could win the seat. The mayor\u2019s friends are bullish. \u201cAndy is a big beast in his own right, and people in Greater Manchester know he is on their side, whatever they think of the Labour party nationally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Left, right and centreJeremy Corbyn after winning the Labour leadership in 2015. Photograph: Mark Thomas\/Rex\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

As a young political adviser, and then a minister, Burnham had a reputation as a Blairite but when Ed Miliband was leader he began to push left. \u201cHe would complain that we were too much Hampstead and not enough Hull,\u201d one contemporary said.<\/p>\n

As one of Miliband\u2019s senior frontbenchers, Burnham played an instrumental role in what came next. During the reform of the leadership election rules in 2014, he \u201cpushed very hard\u201d to bring down the threshold of MP nominations to qualify to 10%, from the original proposal of 20%, complaining that the higher barrier would prevent him from running in future. It would have also, it turns out, prevented Jeremy Corbyn from running.<\/p>\n

His second campaign for leader in 2015 was a pivot, one that is \u201calmost painful to recall\u201d, says one backer. In what was a major right turn, he launched his campaign at Ernst & Young, accompanied to the podium by Rachel Reeves, now Starmer\u2019s chancellor.<\/p>\n

He told a crowd of assembled businessmen that entrepreneurs \u201cwill be as much our heroes as the nurse\u201d, pledging to scrap the mansion tax policy and saying there should be an early EU referendum.<\/p>\n

It was an obvious wrong turn. One perhaps born of the fact that, his parliamentary backers saw his potential weak spot as being seen as too far left. It was rumoured that Burnham-backing MPs were told to nominate Jeremy Corbyn, who could run to his left in order to cast Burnham as a centrist. It was a catastrophic misreading of the party membership.<\/p>\n

When Corbyn won, Burnham was the only other leadership candidate to serve in his shadow cabinet. He stayed loyal and was not one of the frontbenchers who resigned en masse in 2016 to try to force him out. Instead, the same year, he stood down from parliament and successfully ran to become the first mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n

In almost a decade as mayor, the city under Burnham has been a great success story for devolution. It is one of the few parts of the country with economic growth. He has used new transport powers to create the Bee Network of buses now fully under the control of the authority, designing it for users rather than profit.<\/p>\n

But it was his defence of the city during Covid which really won him recognition as an independent thinker and a fighter.<\/p>\n

The other cause which has been the making of Burnham has been his tireless campaign for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. To cynics, it was only taken on after he was booed at Anfield at a memorial service as culture secretary, when the government was still resisting a full inquiry. Burnham himself acknowledges that was a turning point; he raised the issue at cabinet within days. It was the first step towards the inquiry that would ultimately reach the verdict of unlawful killing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Back to the \u2018bubble\u2019<\/p>\n

In parliament there remain a number of high-profile MPs who remain close to Burnham, the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh as well as Powell, and other friends in the cabinet such as Lisa Nandy and Jonathan Reynolds. He has considerable loyalty from MPs across the political spectrum in Greater Manchester \u2013 but also in Liverpool and surrounding constituencies.<\/p>\n

One group that has long been warming the idea of an Andy Burnham run is the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs \u2013 which once would have been called Corbynites. But others, including new Labour MPs in the Labour Growth Group, are attracted to the idea of a popular northerner at the helm, with the experience of running a major city where there has been significant economic growth.<\/p>\n

Those latter MPs however are just as likely to be turned off by any close association with the former. Burnham will appear at a Labour conference event next week with several key leftwing rebels, including Lewis, Nadia Whittome and Rachael Maskell.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardcore welfare rebels are already behind him \u2013 he needs to urgently move to build a broader coalition across the PLP or he\u2019s not going to be an MP, much less carry the numbers for a challenge,\u201d one senior Labour source warned.<\/p>\n

Many of his friends say that should Burnham return to Westminster, they know he would find the confines of Whitehall deeply frustrating. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t do it for anything,\u201d said Rotheram. \u201cI don\u2019t think the Westminster bubble is a healthy way to do our politics, too many distractions, too many lobbyists, but what I would say is that having our experience is a great advantage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Andy ever did decide to come back down, he would have the incentive to change that, to change the whole way politics is delivered in this country. That\u2019s a big decision for him given where he currently is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Andy Burnham addressed a gala dinner this week, he was as coy as he could have been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-148941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}