The seat in Greater Manchester is vacant after former Labour minister Andrew Gwynne stood down on Friday as an MP on health grounds.<\/p>\n
Burnham, a former minister, is widely seen as a potential leadership challenger to Sir Keir, should he return to Westminster.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would welcome Burnham back into the House of Commons, the prime minister said “that’s a matter for Andy” and that he was doing a “first-class job” as mayor of Greater Manchester.<\/p>\n
The prime minister claimed that only Labour could beat Reform UK in Gorton and Denton.<\/p>\n
“You can see from their [Reform’s] candidate what politics they’re going to bring to that constituency, the politics of division, of toxic division, of tearing people apart,” Sir Keir said.<\/p>\n
“That’s not what that constituency is about, it’s not what Manchester is about, so this is a straight fight between Labour and Reform and there’s only one party that can stop the politics of Reform in the by-election and that’s the Labour Party.”<\/p>\n
The academic-turned-political campaigner Matt Goodwin has been selected as Reform’s candidate in the forthcoming by-election.<\/p>\n
The Workers Party of Britain has announced Shahbaz Sarwar – a councillor on Manchester City Council, representing Longsight ward – as its candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election.<\/p>\n
A 10-member panel of Labour’s ruling body, the NEC, blocked Burnham’s candidacy over the weekend, citing the “disproportionate” cost to the party of taking part in a contest to replace him as mayor.<\/p>\n
Sir Keir was among eight NEC members voting to bar Burnham.<\/p>\n
Burnham denied reports that he had been told beforehand by Downing Street that he would be prevented from standing.<\/p>\n
“It is simply untrue to say that I was told that I would be blocked,” he told reporters. “I went through the whole weekend having conversations with people in No 10.”<\/p>\n