{"id":592941,"date":"2026-05-19T18:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592941\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T18:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T18:29:09","slug":"former-first-minister-drakeford-says-andy-burnham-should-be-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/592941\/","title":{"rendered":"Former first minister Drakeford says Andy Burnham should be PM"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The Greater Manchester mayor is standing in the Makerfield by-election, in a high-stakes attempt to re-enter the House of Commons.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Asked if Sir Keir should go, he said: &#8220;Yes, I think he should, but I think he should do it in a planned way, in a dignified way in a way that allows for a smooth transition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think it is irrecoverable both his own personal standing and his ability to lead an effective government on the doorstep.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think, quite unfairly, there was a level of hostility towards the prime minister, which I don&#8217;t think can be recovered.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He added: &#8220;We need somebody who speaks authentically for the wider United Kingdom, the regions of England, the nations of the United Kingdom. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I think Andy is uniquely best to do that, and that&#8217;s why he will have my strong support.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">If Burnham did not win, Drakeford said there would &#8220;be another candidate that represents the sorts of views that Andy represents&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Appearing to support Angela Rayner in that scenario, he added: &#8220;If Angie were to be the standard bearer of that strand, in the party&#8217;s opinion, I would be very keen to support her too.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Greater Manchester mayor is standing in the Makerfield by-election, in a high-stakes attempt to re-enter the House&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":592942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-592941","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\/592941","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=592941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/592941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/592942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=592941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=592941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}