A meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday evening has inadvertently confirmed that the underhand tricks and backstabbing by MPs has got out of hand.
At the meeting, both foreign secretary Yvette Cooper and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds did their best primary school teacher impressions and gave their colleagues a dressing down for all their briefings against the prime minister and various leadership candidates.
It was apparently meant to be an appeal for unity. But one MP suggested it was the 21st century equivalent of King Cnut shouting at the sea to stop the tide coming in. It was seen as both a complete waste of energy – and a little hypocritical on a day it was revealed that Sir Keir Starmer’s allies are briefing against Andy Burnham, claiming he would bring back Jeremy Corbyn if he became prime minister.
To use another currently popular metaphor for Labour parliamentarians, the genie is now out of the bottle. And, while there is no official leadership contest, it cannot be put back in.
What is happening now in the phantom leadership contest is a simultaneously brutal and sophisticated series of dirty tricks campaigns – largely aimed at stopping Mr Burnham from becoming MP for Makerfield and then potentially prime minister.
It appears that the various leadership rivals – and Downing Street – are all playing the game in their own ways.
The Independent has already exposed the blunt instrument being used by No 10, which roughly translates as “vote Andy, get Corbyn”.
The fact that it is already being briefed that the Greater Manchester mayor has done a deal to bring back the former leader, who was cast out over an antisemitism row, is indicative of Starmer’s allies pressing the Defcon-4 red button of scare tactics.
Apart from the fact that Corbyn’s former allies in the Socialist Campaign Group are now backing Burnham, there is no evidence to support the claim. But, nevertheless, it is out there.
It should be said that The Independent has offered Mr Burnham’s camp an opportunity to deny the suggestions, which they have yet to take up.
Meanwhile, on the sophisticated end of the scale of the dirty tricks method was Wes Streeting’s speech at the weekend.
Mr Streeting used his speech to call for the UK to rejoin the EU. He clearly did this as part of his own leadership pitch having resigned from Starmer’s government as health secretary last week.
But the other motive appeared to be to put Mr Burnham in an awkward spot. Trying to win a heavily pro-Leave seat like Makerfield in a straight fight against Nigel Farage’s Reform UK becomes that bit harder when you are having to talk about rejoining the EU.
The problem is that it rather plays into the problem of Mr Burnham being an “all things to all people” character. He said last year he wanted to rejoin – but now says he does not want to talk about it in the by-election.
His opponents and rivals within Labour – other leadership candidates and a prime minister who wants to keep his job – have every interest in exposing a man who is trying to appeal to both the pro-trans, pro-rejoin, pro-immigration left of the party in the Socialist Campaign Group to the anti-immigration, pro-Brexit, pro-biological female definition right of the party in Blue Labour.
As an ally of Sir Keir put it: “The coalition is unsustainable”.
A now regularly repeated joke about his ability to change political position is being circulated: “A Blairite, Brownite and Corbynite walks into a pub and the landlord shouts, ‘Hi, Andy!’”
Taking such personality-led broad brush approaches does leave Mr Burnham more exposed to this sort of dirty tricks campaign as rivals try to pin him down into positions he does not want to take. They are calculating that he will unravel.
One supporter of a leadership candidate noted: “Burnham is not going to stand up to six weeks of intense scrutiny. I predict outrage / lashing out at some point.”
The plan is obviously aimed at making the otherwise jovial Mr Burnham crack under pressure.
Mr Streeting has said he wants Mr Burnham to be on the pitch for the leadership contest and Sir Keir has said he will back the Makerfield candidate “100 per cent” – whoever it is. But Team Burnham may be thinking about snakes talking with forked tongues.
It is clear that the Greater Manchester mayor is not only taking on Reform UK in Makerfield – but the ambitions of leading figures in his party.
