dailynewsnblog
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.
Key events
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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