Andy Burnham Casts A Shadow Over Labour Party Conference
Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham attend an event in Parliament, 2022 | Alamy
4 min read
The figure of Andy Burnham is looming large over Liverpool as Labour MPs prepare to gather in Merseyside this weekend for their annual party conference.
Rather than dismiss speculation that he wants to replace Keir Starmer, the Mayor of Greater Manchester's pre-conference interventions have fuelled claims that he wants to swap the northwest of England for Westminster.
Speaking on the Political Currency podcast this week, former Labour Cabinet minister Ed Balls said Burnham "is going out [of his way] to build up and provoke massive speculation".
The past few weeks have posed the greatest challenge to Starmer's leadership so far, with multiple senior government resignations, particularly that of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador over his links to Jeffrey Epstein, leading Labour MPs to question his judgement.
The mood within Labour has been so grim that MPs have started to discuss the prospect of Starmer being forced out of No 10, despite winning a huge majority only last summer.
But rather than throw his full weight behind Starmer, Burnham has publicly confirmed that some Labour MPs want him to challenge his leadership. "People have contacted me throughout the summer, yeah," he told The Telegraph in an interview earlier this week.
The former MP has also criticised the culture within Starmer's No 10 and the government's economic policy, and said that the country needs "wholesale change".
Burnham backers argue that he is one of the party's strongest electoral assets and can take the fight to Nigel Farage's Reform UK in a way that Starmer, whose current personal ratings are very poor, cannot.
A Savanta poll for The House on the eve of Labour conference found that Burnham is leading the pack of potential replacements for Starmer.
In polling of 2,086 UK adults conducted between 19 and 22 September, 28 per cent said Burnham would be better than Starmer as PM, with 14 per cent saying he would be worse and 28 per cent saying he would be neither better nor worse.
When it came to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who are also seen as potential successors, respondents said they would be worse than the current PM.
PoliticsHome understands that MPs on the left of Labour, frustrated with the direction of the Starmer administration, have urged Burnham to launch a leadership challenge.
Mainstream, the new pro-Labour campaign group set up in recent weeks and endorsed by many Labour MPs, and Burnham himself, is seen as a potential support base.
However, Burnham's interventions, coming on the eve of the party's Liverpool conference, have infuriated many of his colleagues in the House of Commons.
One Labour MP who said they were open to the idea of Starmer being replaced described the mayor's approach as "a bit desperate".
"To be this overt about it ahead of conference will do him no favours with those of us who are open-minded about a future leader."
One particularly furious minister told PoliticsHome that Burnham should resign.
“We spent 14 years in opposition, then a landslide victory led by Keir Starmer. If a Labour politician thinks it's right to mess around, then they should consider their position."
An MP in the north of England said they are “sick to the back teeth” of hearing that Burnham is the answer to their party's problems.
“If Andy were a serious contender, he’d be sitting down with MPs to discuss his vision rather than litigating his grievance with the leadership in the papers every day,” they said.
“We know more about what he stands against than what he stands for – that's his problem."
Critics also accuse Burnham of abandoning the party during the tumultuous leadership of Jeremy Corbyn when he quit as an MP to lead Manchester.
Rather than ignore Burnham's remarks and hope that the story fizzles out, Downing Street has seemingly decided to take the fight to his ambition.
Responding to Burnham's claim that the government must stop being in "hock to the bond markets", Starmer and other Cabinet ministers have likened this approach to that of Liz Truss' short-lived time in office.
“We have to tread with real care around casual language on the bond markets. Working people ended up paying more on their mortgages because of Liz Truss’s actions and what happened there," the Prime Minister said.
Given that a Labour leader must also be an MP, and with no obvious route to a House of Commons return on the horizon for Burnham, it is currently difficult to see how he could turn his ambition into action any time soon.
But that is unlikely to stop him from being the talk of Liverpool this weekend.
