which he shared on social media,<\/a> Burnham said there was a “direct threat to everything Greater Manchester has always been about from a brand of politics which seeks to pit people against each other”.<\/p>\n“I see this by-election as the frontline of that fight for the Manchester Way and I feel I owe it to a city which has given me so much to lead it from the front, despite the risks involved.”<\/p>\n
He said he had left Westminster nearly a decade ago because he believed “it wasn’t working for people in our part of the world” and that as mayor he had “tried to pioneer a different way of doing things”.<\/p>\n
However, he added that he believed Manchester “won’t be able to be everything it should be without similar changes at a national level.<\/p>\n
“This is why I feel the need to go back.”<\/p>\n
There has been speculation that the prime minister could face a leadership challenge, after the May elections, which will see votes take place in the Welsh Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and in some local councils in England.<\/p>\n
Burnham has been touted as a possible leadership contender but can only mount a bid if he is an MP in the Commons.<\/p>\n
In his letter to the NEC, Burnham insisted he would be in Parliament “to support the work of the government, not undermine it”.<\/p>\n
“I have passed this assurance on to the prime minister.”<\/p>\n
Some senior Labour figures in the party have said they believe Burnham should be allowed to enter the contest. <\/p>\n
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan said: “If Andy Burnham wants to be a member of Parliament, Andy Burnham should be allowed to be a member of Parliament”.<\/p>\n
Indicating her support for Burnham, deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell said: “I want to make sure we are putting the best team out on the pitch week after week” adding: “I don’t want to see [Erling] Haaland on the bench” in a reference to the Manchester City football player. <\/p>\n
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said Burnham would be a massive asset” in Parliament and that he hoped Gorton and Denton party members would have “the option” of selecting him as a candidate.<\/p>\n
If he were to be selected and won the Gorton and Denton seat, Burnham would have to resign as Greater Manchester mayor, triggering a new election for that role.<\/p>\n
Several Labour sources have said the NEC could block Burnham’s application on the grounds that a mayoral election would be expensive for the party. <\/p>\n
It would also be costly for the taxpayer with the last mayoral election costing around \u00a34.7m. <\/p>\n
The area of Gorton and Denton has traditionally voted Labour and the party won the seat in 2024 with a majority of 13,000.<\/p>\n
However, since then the party’s popularity has declined and Labour could face challenges from Reform UK and the Green Party who came second and third at the general election.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, Burnham made his intentions clear, Reform’s Lee Anderson posted a picture of himself campaigning in Gorton and Denton with the message “bring it on”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has announced that he is seeking permission to stand in the upcoming Gorton and Denton parliamentary…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-388472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388472","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=388472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}