{"id":159144,"date":"2025-09-25T08:08:04","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159144\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T08:08:04","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T08:08:04","slug":"burnham-says-mps-are-privately-urging-him-to-challenge-starmer-for-labour-leadership-labour-party-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/159144\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnham says MPs are privately urging him to challenge Starmer for Labour leadership | Labour party leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has said Labour MPs are privately urging him to challenge Keir Starmer<\/a> to become prime minister.<\/p>\n

In an intervention likely to fuel speculation that he is seeking a return to Westminster, Burnham accused Downing Street of creating a \u201cclimate of fear\u201d and spreading \u201calienation and demoralisation\u201d among MPs.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph<\/a> before the Labour conference this weekend, the Greater Manchester mayor said he was not \u201cplotting to get back\u201d and the leadership was \u201cfor other people in Westminster to make a decision about\u201d.<\/p>\n

It came a day after a separate interview with the New Statesman where Burnham said wholesale change was needed to see off an existential threat to the party.<\/p>\n

The former New Labour<\/a> minister and ex-MP for Leigh said he was not planning an immediate return to the House of Commons or seeking to cause trouble for the government before the conference.<\/p>\n

But his interventions have been interpreted as a signal that he is mulling a challenge to Starmer in what would be his third run at the Labour leadership.<\/p>\n

Asked about Burnham\u2019s remarks on Thursday morning, Steve Reed, the housing secretary, said Starmer got used to people \u201ctaking potshots\u201d at him during opposition before he \u201cpicked this party up off the floor and led us to a record-breaking election victory\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sky News, Reed added that Burnham was doing a good job as mayor and was entitled to his view.<\/p>\n

Asked by the Telegraph if MPs had urged him to run, Burnham said: \u201cPeople have contacted me throughout the summer, yeah. I\u2019m not going to say to you that that hasn\u2019t happened but, as I say, it\u2019s more a decision for those people than it is for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He confirmed he still harboured the ambition to become prime minister, saying: \u201cI stood twice to be leader of the Labour party. And I think that tells you, doesn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

He set out his thoughts on how to \u201cturn the country around\u201d, including with higher council tax on some homes in southern England and a 50p top rate of income tax.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what\u2019s happening and why it matters<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

He said there was a \u201chuge underpayment of tax that should now be corrected\u201d on homes in London and the south-east because the rates were based on property valuations from 1991.<\/p>\n

He also called for more public control of housing, energy, water and rail, backed proportional representation<\/a> and signalled a willingness to work with the Liberal Democrats and Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

Burnham said returning to \u201cthe old way of doing things in Westminster with minimal change\u201d was an unattractive prospect and that \u201cthe threat we\u2019re facing is increasingly an existential one\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he could rule out a leadership challenge against Starmer before the May local elections, Burnham said: \u201cLife seems to be changing, and I don\u2019t know what is the will of people in Westminster \u2026 I am at the prime minister\u2019s disposal to help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Starmer has had a bruising few weeks<\/a> in which two high-profile government departures and a sustained lag behind Reform UK in the polls sparked questions about his leadership.<\/p>\n

But Burnham would face several obstacles were he to decide to mount a challenge. He would have to resign as mayor of Greater Manchester<\/a> before contesting and winning a parliamentary byelection for a Commons seat.<\/p>\n

He has thrown his weight behind the former Commons leader Lucy Powell<\/a> in the race to become deputy leader after Angela Rayner\u2019s resignation<\/a> over her tax affairs.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Bridget Phillipson, the eduction secretary, rejected claims she was No 10\u2019s choice, suggesting instead she had been the victim of sexist briefings.<\/p>\n

Asked whether she would welcome Burnham into the Commons as a potential leadership rival to the prime minister, she told BBC Radio 5 Live: \u201cWell, there isn\u2019t a vacancy, so I\u2019m not sure which job he\u2019d be applying for. He\u2019s got a big job on his hands there in Manchester<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has said Labour MPs are privately urging him to challenge Keir Starmer to become prime minister.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159145,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-159144","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\/159144","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=159144"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159144\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}