{"id":582584,"date":"2026-05-13T23:35:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:35:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582584\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T23:35:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T23:35:09","slug":"hold-the-line-burnham-tells-allies-in-parliament-he-still-has-options-to-return-labour-party-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/582584\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Hold the line\u2019: Burnham tells allies in parliament he still has options to return | Labour party leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham has told Labour MPs they should hold the line and that he has options to return to parliament after several seats identified by his allies failed to materialise.<\/p>\n

Two seats that backers of the Greater Manchester mayor had described as \u201cnailed on\u201d as recently as Monday night are now out of contention after the MPs concerned got cold feet.<\/p>\n

Burnham spoke to a number of MPs by phone on Tuesday and assured them that he still intended to seek an imminent return to parliament.<\/p>\n

The Guardian was told by two MPs on Wednesday that Jeff Smith, who represents Manchester Withington, an affluent suburb of the city, was in talks about stepping aside for Burnham, but his friends denied it. Asked whether he was about to make way, Smith told the Press Association he was not.<\/p>\n

Afzal Khan, the MP for Manchester Rusholme, also attempted to play down speculation that his seat was in contention, saying voters had chosen him to represent them \u201cand that is the job I am focused on doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, members of Khan\u2019s local Labour<\/a> party said they believed he was preparing to stand aside for Burnham. Asked whether this was the case, Khan told the Press Association: \u201cI am not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim McMahon, who represents Oldham West, did not respond to inquiries about his seat, but he is known to be close to the former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, another possible contender for the Labour leadership. There are some in the Burnham camp who have reservations about the seat because of the likelihood of a well-funded Reform campaign there, and especially a focus on the town\u2019s dark legacy of grooming gangs.<\/p>\n

\u2018I\u2019m not stepping aside for Andy Burnham,\u2019 said Charlotte Nichols, the MP for Warrington North. Photograph: Martin Godwin\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Burnham\u2019s allies had previously been confident they had potential seats for him in Warrington North and St Helens South and Whiston, but the MPs for these constituencies, Charlotte Nichols and Marie Rimmer, deny that was the case.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many different ways I can say this, but I\u2019m not stepping aside for Andy Burnham,\u201d Nichols said on Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s both very tedious for me and very demoralising for my staff to keep seeing it reported that I might be about to go when there\u2019s never even been so much as a conversation with Andy about doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

One Burnham ally said: \u201cWe thought the local election results would concentrate some people\u2019s minds [but] until you\u2019ve got something lined up, you haven\u2019t. There\u2019s been a couple of near misses but it\u2019s difficult because it depends how colleagues feel [about their own political future]. We were hopeful something might come up and it hasn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another MP, a key Burnham supporter, put it bluntly: \u201cThey\u2019ve fucked it. Everything is falling apart, they\u2019ve run out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third pro-Burnham source said it looked as if any leadership race would move too fast for the mayor, with Wes Streeting<\/a> expected to start an accelerated process this week. \u201cIt\u2019s a big shit cocktail. We\u2019re all doomed,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\"StreetingStreeting set to fire starting gun in leadership battle with Starmer – The Latest<\/p>\n

Burnham is understood to have had conversations with union leaders, but one member of Labour\u2019s national executive committee said that in order to win over some he would have to distance himself from elements of the energy policies promoted by Ed Miliband, because the GMB and others were pushing for a change in position.<\/p>\n

They said Burnham had been very far from having a majority on the committee the last time he attempted to run, but another source on the committee said that if Starmer\u2019s political authority<\/a> was shot Burnham would have a chance. \u201cEveryone on there is a pragmatist,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

Burnham has been the preferred candidate for many MPs on the party\u2019s soft left, including influential figures such as the former ministers Louise Haigh and Miatta Fahnbulleh, as well as more centrist MPs such as the former minister Josh Simons. But the group is likely to split significantly should Streeting launch a challenge and Burnham be unable to return in time.<\/p>\n

Should Starmer decide to run against Streeting \u2013 and an alternative candidate from the left \u2013 the prime minister would have a major advantage because of Labour\u2019s voting system, which is preferential.<\/p>\n

MPs say they are deeply concerned that because Starmer would be likely to collect most second preferences, in a three-way contest he could even come second and still remain leader and prime minister.<\/p>\n

Many told the Guardian they were split between backing Miliband or Rayner, or keeping Starmer in place to buy Burnham more time.<\/p>\n

\u201cEd has got no hope with the unions, he has no path,\u201d one senior MP said. \u201cLots of us might nominate him for want of anything and then sit it out. The Tribune group is split, massively.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another MP who backs Burnham said: \u201cAndy\u2019s best hope now is to do a deal with Keir \u2013 give him some time, let him build a legacy on Iran and Ukraine, finish the bills he cares about and have a transition that allows Andy to return. I think there are some in No 10 that are open to that, in theory, if the polls look as bad as they are. But they are worried, of course, about losing even more political authority if that comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham has told Labour MPs they should hold the line and that he has options to return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":582585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-582584","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\/582584","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=582584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/582584\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/582585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=582584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=582584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=582584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}