Andy Burnham is still dancing delicately, but his remarks on BBC Question Time were a hop and a shimmy further than he has stepped before. The Labour mayor of Greater Manchester told the programme: “I think Wes Streeting seems to have launched a leadership contest, so if that is running, I would seek to join it. But I’d have to persuade members of the Parliamentary Labour Party to do the same.”
Streeting, the former health secretary, has not formally launched a contest either, but Burnham is framing his potential entry as joining rather than triggering – a subtle distinction his allies point to, to emphasise he is not trigger happy. But the very mention of a contest goaded Downing Street into restating the prime minister’s position. A No10 spokesman said: “The Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and it has not been triggered. The prime minister will not walk away from the mandate he was given just two years ago.”
“Burnham hints at joining a Labour leadership contest, prompting No10 to insist Starmer won't step down.”
The exchanges matter because in two weeks, voters in the Makerfield constituency go to the polls. Burnham is desperate not to be seen as presumptuous to the people he needs to win over. The prime minister’s friends continue to emphasise Sir Keir Starmer’s determination, while acknowledging the brutal political reality he confronts – particularly if Burnham wins.
On Friday, the contradiction in Burnham’s position was on show again in a BBC Newsnight interview. He was coy when faced with questions about becoming prime minister, but he did outline national policy proposals: a 20% cut in business rates for pubs, “typically worth about £5,000 a year”, and tackling social care by asking Dame Louise Casey – currently carrying out an inquiry – to produce her findings this year, rather than the proposed 2028.
On Question Time, Burnham also said carrying knives for religious reasons “needs to be looked at,” a debate prompted by the killer of Henry Nowak carrying a kirpan, a Sikh sword or dagger. He added that his outlook on whether there was “two-tier policing” in the UK was shaped by the attitude of… [source text truncated, but that is the end of available facts].
The by-election is now a proxy battle for Labour’s future – with Burnham’s careful steps edging ever closer to a full leadership challenge, while Downing Street digs in.