Starmer says Burnham blocked because Labour must focus on ‘elections we must have’, not unnecessary mayoral contest
Keir Starmer has defended the decision not to allow Andy Burnham to stand to be Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Starmer was on the 10-strong panel that took the near-unanimous decision to block Burnham yesterday, and, speaking to broadcasters today, he set out the same argument used by Douglas Alexander earlier. (See 8.51am.) Starmer said:
We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people. And we’re out campaigning on the cost of living and they’re very important elections.
We need all of our focus on those elections.
Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win.
And resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have. And that was the basis of the NEC decision.
Key events
According to Sam Coates at Sky News, Labour might decide to hold the Gorton and Denton byelection as early as late February. The party that previously held the seat gets to move the writ for a byelection and governing parties facing a difficult byelection sometimes go for a quick contest so that challenger parties, which might not be well organised in the seat and short of voter data, don’t have time to bed in and build up momentum.
Starmer says Burnham blocked because Labour must focus on ‘elections we must have’, not unnecessary mayoral contest
Keir Starmer has defended the decision not to allow Andy Burnham to stand to be Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Starmer was on the 10-strong panel that took the near-unanimous decision to block Burnham yesterday, and, speaking to broadcasters today, he set out the same argument used by Douglas Alexander earlier. (See 8.51am.) Starmer said:
We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people. And we’re out campaigning on the cost of living and they’re very important elections.
We need all of our focus on those elections.
Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win.
And resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have. And that was the basis of the NEC decision.
In his Today programme interview Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, suggested the media wanted Andy Burnham to be a byelection candidate in Gorton and Denton because it would have made a better story. He said:
There’s also a political point here. What does our constitution say as a democratic socialist party? “By the strength of our common endeavour, we achieve more than we achieve alone.” We exist as a Labour party, not for what’s best for an individual, but what’s best collectively. And the coming months should be about confronting the forces in British politics that want to take our country apart, and offer instead a vision of the Labour party’s future which is about us pulling together.
So of course, there is politics involved in the judgment that the national executive committee makes because, frankly, we have the fight of our lives on our hands in relation to Reform.
And that psychodrama that we could have anticipated? I understand, if the National Union of Journalists was an affiliated union and had been in the room yesterday, they would probably have voted to put Andy forward. Because it would have been a dripping host of stories for them.
But the job of the national executive committee is to decide what’s in the best interests of the Labour party as we face these very considerable electoral challenges.
Douglas Alexander says he would like to see Burnham return to Commons once his term has mayor has finished
In his Today programme interview this morning, Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, said that he hoped Andy Burnham would return to the Commons when he finishes his current terms as mayor of Greater Manchester. Alexander said:
The judgement that was made yesterday was in relation to the particular circumstances of today …
I would certainly hope that Andy would want to continue to serve in the UK parliament once his term as mayor is finished.
I have to declare a bias here; I’m both a friend and a huge admirer of Andy Burnham. I think he’s got an immense amount to contribute, not just in Manchester, where he’s doing a brilliant job, but I would hope to parliament in the future.
Burnham’s term as mayor runs until May 2028. The next general election does not have to be held until 2029.
Here is Peter Walker’s story about Douglas Alexander’s media round this. Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has a good turn of phrase, and is fond of alliteration, and he said the decision taken yesterday not to allow Burnham to be a byelection candidate was “more about focus than about factionalism”.
Zack Polanski says Labour has ‘blown it’ in Gorton and Denton, as he talks up Greens’ chances in byelection
At one stage there was speculation that Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, would be the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection. He is from Manchester (but also currently sitting as a member of the London assembly.) He has ruled out being the Green candidate. But the Greens are claiming they are now best placed to beat Reform UK in the seat.
Yesterday Polanski posted this on social media.
Labour have blown it. This is it. Time to take on Reform.
Manchesters first Green MP is coming. Join us to help get them elected on Saturday
This chart (in classic Lib Dem bar chart-style) is misleading. While it is true to say that current polling suggests Reform UK and the Greens are the parties that have most improved their share of the vote in Gorton and Denton (and in most places) since the general election, the ElectionMapsUK data still suggests Labour is narrowly ahead of these two parties in the constituency. Other polling, such as the recent More in Common MRP poll published, or the recent Electoral Calculus MRP poll, suggests Reform UK is ahead – and the Green party well behind (not just one point behind, as this chart suggests).
There are claims this morning saying Labour MPs opposed to the decision to block Andy Burnham from being a candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection will try to get the issue referred to a full meeting of Labour’s national executive committee, in the hope that the NEC will reverse it. The decision yesterday was taken by the NEC’s 1o-strong officers’ group, which is dominated by leadership loyalists.
The NEC as a whole has about 40 members, and it contains people who would vote against Keir Starmer on this issue. But the leadership still has a clear majority on the NEC. In their story in the Times, Max Kendix, Steven Swinford and Oliver Wright say:
In private, allies of Burnham in Westminster are looking at ways to overturn the decision, including the possibility of trying to convene an emergency meeting of the whole 40-strong NEC, which includes unions not represented on the executive. However, one source said they would do this only if they were “sure they had the numbers to reverse the decision”.
Burnham suggests Labour more likely to lose Gorton and Denton byelection now it has blocked him as candidate
Andy Burnham has suggested that Labour is more likely to lose the Gorton and Denton byelection now that it has blocked him from being the candidate.
He implied this last night in a reply on social media to a post from Tom Baldwin, Keir Starmer’s biographer and communications director for Ed Miliband when he was Labour leader. Baldwin said:
I’ve always liked @AndyBurnhamGM but the prospect of him returning to Westminster has already added to inward-looking psychodrama that does no one any good. And an unnecessary by-election for Mayor of Manchester might well have resulted in long term damage to his reputation too.
And Burnham replied:
I’m not sure losing a by-election does us any good either, Tom.
In a post earlier yesterday Burnham said:
I am disappointed by today’s NEC decision and concerned about its potential impact on the important elections ahead of us.
To whoever is Labour’s candidate and to our members in Manchester and Tameside: you will have my full support and I will be there whenever you need me.
There is polling showing Burnham is right to suggest that, without him on the ballot, Labour will lose the byelection.
Minister says Reform UK outspending Labour 10 to 1 as he says Burnham byelection ban was to avoid risk from mayoral contest
Good morning. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will this afternoon announce a huge police reform package (which the Home Office has been briefing out, item by item, for the past few days) but, not for the first time, an internal Labour party crisis is attracting more interest and comment than a government policy initiative.
Here is Peter Walker’s overnight story about Labour’s decision to ban Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, from being a candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, the backlash against the move in the party, and the possible consequences.
Peter also has a good analysis here. And Josh Halliday has an analysis of what is now likely to happen in Gorton and Denton, a constituency on the outskirts of Manchester.
This morning Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, has been on the airwaves defending the decision. In its statement yesterday the Labour party said:
The NEC [national executive committee] believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester Mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources ahead of the local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd in May. Although the party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk.
This morning Alexander put the same argument in more colourful terms. He told Times Radio that having a new Greater Manchester mayoral election (which would have to happen, because Burnham would have to stand down as mayor to stand as a byelection candidate) would be the “the equivalent of 20 by-elections diverting time, energy and money” for Labour. And he went on:
We would certainly have fought that contest hard, but there would have been some degree of risk – Reform are outspending us about 10-to-one at the moment and in the biggest and most unnecessary electoral contest in England, you can never take anything for granted. That doesn’t strike me as a risk-free choice.
I will post more from his interviews shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
Morning: Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, are on a visit in London.
10am: Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, speaks at an online Centre for Social Justice event on technical education.
11am: Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, holds a press conference where he is expected to commit to halt any prosecutions of military veterans over Northern Ireland Troubles-related offences.
11am: Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, gives a speech.
Noon: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.
2.30pm: Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, takes questions in the Commons.
After 3.30pm: Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, makes a statement to MPs about police reform.
4.30pm: Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the PM, and Dan Jarvis, the security minister, give evidence to parliament’s national security strategy committee.
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