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.
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