Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor and newly elected Makerfield MP, has secured 322 nominations from his colleagues as the contest to become the next Labour leader and prime minister formally got started. He is expected to replace Keir Starmer — who resigned last month after acknowledging he had lost the support of his party despite a landslide win in 2024 — as Labour leader on July 17, and take over government the following week.
But even as a shoo-in, recent British political history suggests Burnham has a tough task ahead keeping Labour’s 400-plus MPs happy until the next general election. Labour grandee Harriet Harman has said she believes Burnham will bring about "profound change" to the Labour Party. Yet MPs are already laying down markers, warning him not to copy Starmer’s zero-tolerance approach to dissent.
“Andy Burnham secures 322 nominations for Labour leader but MPs warn him to avoid Starmer's authoritarian style.”
“Many of the forced errors over the last two years have been because ministers didn’t engage with backbenchers,” said Rachael Maskell, a left-wing MP who lost the whip for four months last year over her opposition to the government’s welfare reforms — which were significantly watered down after a backbench rebellion. She took aim at the “authoritarian, center-led” decision-making of the Starmer administration. Maskell already has a meeting with Burnham in the diary.
Noah Law, a 2024 intake Labour MP, says he is getting face time too. “I’ve had more quality time with him than I have with any other senior figures or cabinet figures, let alone the prime minister,” Law said, advising Burnham must keep his “ear to the ground” going forward.
Neil Duncan-Jordan, another welfare rebel who Starmer suspended, says the former mayor must “ensure all voices are heard, and dissenting is not seen as disloyalty.” He wants policies outside the 2024 manifesto “run past a backbench committee drawn from across the political spectrum” to avoid making the same mistakes.
In an email to MPs this week, Burnham said he would create a team “where everyone is valued, seen, listened to and can make their mark” — a pledge he will have to stick to if he wants to keep colleagues on side. The question now is whether his blueprint delivers the "profound change" Harman predicts, or the "nonsense" some critics fear.