{"id":390927,"date":"2026-01-26T07:08:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390927\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T07:08:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T07:08:07","slug":"crash-burnham-what-the-uk-papers-say-as-labour-blocks-andy-burnhams-byelection-bid-newspapers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390927\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Crash & Burnham\u2019: what the UK papers say as Labour blocks Andy Burnham\u2019s byelection bid | Newspapers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The decision by Labour\u2019s national executive committee (NEC) to block Andy Burnham<\/a> from standing in a parliamentary byelection prompted a wave of headlines about Keir Starmer\u2019s leadership and potential rifts in the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour faces risk of party civil war after PM blocks Burnham\u2019s return\u201d is how the Guardian framed the vote to reject Burnham\u2019s request<\/a> to seek selection in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Burnham said he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d by the NEC\u2019s decision, and hit out at \u201cthe way the Labour party is being run\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Mirror led on \u201cStrong Starm tactics\u201d, claiming that Starmer \u2013 who sits on the committee \u2013 had derailed a potential leadership bid. The paper said Labour<\/a> had been plunged into open warfare.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour MPs revolt over blocking of Burnham\u201d was the headline on the Times splash, with a rather unhappy looking mayor of Greater Manchester photographed with his arm around his mother, Eileen. Its story had allies of Starmer saying that allowing Burnham to stand down as mayor might have given Greater Manchester to Reform. Meanwhile, critics lambasted the decision as a \u201cstitch-up\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Express front page trumpeted \u201cLabour war as Starmer blocks Burnham bid to be MP\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLabour in revolt over Burnham \u2018stitch-up\u2019\u201d was the top story at the Telegraph, which also detailed Burnham\u2019s sharp criticism of the NEC for telling reporters the outcome of the vote before he was told the news: \u201cYou would think that over 30 years of service would count for something but sadly not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Sun saw the news as a classic case of \u201cCrash & Burnham\u201d, insisting Starmer had lit the fuse on a bloody civil war and was now staring down the barrel of an internal party crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cLame duck Starmer has only hastened his demise\u201d was the Mail\u2019s take, warning that Starmer will now \u201cinevitably face a leadership challenge\u201d for \u201cpersonally helping to block Burnham\u2019s return\u201d. It said the NEC took 45 minutes to decide Burnham\u2019s fate.<\/p>\n

The i paper said \u201cStarmer triggers Labour civil war after blocking Burnham return\u201d, and suggested Health Secretary Wes Streeting could exploit the divisions in Labour to mount a leadership challenge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The decision by Labour\u2019s national executive committee (NEC) to block Andy Burnham from standing in a parliamentary byelection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-390927","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\/390927","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=390927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}