Andy Burnham has been given the green light to stand in a by-election that could see him return to Westminster to challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester has been cleared by the Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), allowing him to be included in the party’s candidate selection process for the upcoming Makerfield by-election.
A Labour spokesperson confirmed the decision on Friday afternoon, a day after Josh Simons, a former ally of Sir Keir, stunned colleagues by stepping down as an MP to allow Mr Burnham to stand in the seat, paving the way for a leadership bid.
The NEC had faced intense pressure to allow Mr Burnham to run, following the body’s decision to block him from running in the Gorton and Denton contest earlier this year.
Wes Streeting, who is gearing up for a fight against Mr Burnham in any contest, joined those backing him to win the by-election, saying Labour needs “our best players on the pitch”.
But, despite throwing his weight behind his rival, the former health secretary’s allies told The Independent that he would stand as a leadership candidate in any contest.
In a post to social media on Friday, Mr Streeting wrote: “The Makerfield by-election will be tough. Votes will need to be earned. Andy is the best chance of winning and that should override factional advantage or propping up one person.”
Allies of Mr Streeting later confirmed to The Independent: “Wes will be a candidate when the contest comes”.
Mr Streeting ended days of speculation as he quit the Cabinet on Thursday, saying he had “lost confidence” in the PM and called for a contest for the Labour leadership.
He will deliver his first speech as a backbencher on Saturday at the Progress conference, with many seeing the address as his first real leadership pitch to voters.
Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner revealed that her tax affairs had been resolved with HMRC, seen as a stumbling block by many to a leadership bid – but she later suggested she may back Mr Burnham instead of running herself.
However, the mayor of Greater Manchester’s return to Westminster will be far from straightforward, as he now faces a tough fight against Reform UK, who came second in the seat at the previous general election, and made significant gains in the area at last week’s disastrous local elections.
Speaking at the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) conference earlier on Friday, Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell said there was going to be “absolutely no attempt” to block Mr Burnham from standing as the Labour candidate in the by-election.
“We’ve got to do our politics differently. We’ve got to end the factionalism. We’ve got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour Party, all the different voices, and bring one team back together, and that means having Andy Burnham as a key player in that team”, she said.
“I supported Andy last time he wanted to come back to parliament, and I fully support him wanting to come back to parliament again.
“And just to be clear, I’ve got it on good authority that there’s going to be absolutely no attempt to stop him from doing that again, so we will have him as the candidate, I’m sure.”
Ms Powell also appealed to the FBU for their support in the by-election, admitting it is going to be “tough” for Labour to beat Reform.
She said: “I’m really going to ask you, especially those of you in Greater Manchester and nearby: this is going to be a tough by-election for us to win against Reform, and if Andy is selected as the candidate in the coming days – let’s see what happens there – we are going to need all of your help in that by-election.
“So if you will come along and help us there, I think that would be really great.”
This month’s local elections saw Reform win every council ward in the Makerfield constituency, securing around half the vote, while Labour won only a little more than a quarter.
But Mr Burnham could benefit from his strong personal following across the North West, where he enjoys a net favourability rating of 24 per cent according to pollster Ipsos – considerably higher than any of the party leaders or the Labour Party itself.
Speaking to BBC Manchester on Friday, Mr Simons acknowledged the contest would be “a really, really, really tough fight”, adding he did not know what the result would be.
He said: “Sometimes in history, when people take risks and they say, ‘I think this is the right fight to have, but I don’t know if we’re going to win it’, that’s what changes the story. That’s what changes the course of things.”
The election could also prove expensive, especially as a victory for Mr Burnham would trigger another by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty.
A by-election in Makerfield alone could cost the taxpayer up to £226,000, while the cost of a mayoral by-election in Greater Manchester would run into the millions, with the 2024 mayoral race costing the taxpayer £4.7m.
