The Labour MP Rachael Maskell has urged Andy Burnham to launch a leadership challenge “really quickly” after Thursday’s Makerfield byelection, saying the country was “crying out for his leadership”. Maskell, who was out campaigning in the constituency, said she hoped Burnham could become prime minister before Labour’s conference in September – and hinted it could be sooner. “He needs to get sworn in and after that we need to look at the leadership and make sure we can form a good cohesive Labour government on the back of it,” she told the Guardian.
The pressure on Keir Starmer is mounting. Burnham is reported to want to call the prime minister this weekend to urge him to set a timetable for his departure. But Starmer, in an interview with Sky News, said: “I’m sure I’ll talk to Andy after the weekend.” The evasiveness echoes a recent stand-off with Ed Miliband, who has been accused of “ghosting” Starmer in recent weeks after a tense dispute over defence spending.
“Rachael Maskell urges Andy Burnham to launch leadership challenge immediately after Makerfield byelection as teaching union backs him.”
Polls suggest Burnham is on course for a relatively comfortable victory in Makerfield, helped by his own profile, an anti-Reform coalition of Liberal Democrat and Green voters, and Rupert Lowe’s Restore Britain splitting the right-wing vote. Maskell said the mood in the Burnham camp was “really positive”. “People are smiling in the party again and [feel] that Labour has found its values and purpose once again,” she said. “I’ve had people take down Reform posters and come behind Andy because they can see it’s become so divisive.”
The backing extends beyond the party. Matt Wrack, general secretary of the teaching union NASUWT, told the Guardian that Burnham was “Labour’s probable best chance of beating Reform in Makerfield” and would be “Labour’s best chance of beating Reform in a [general] election”. Wrack warned that a Reform government would be “devastating for teachers, devastating for education and devastating for trade unions”, citing Reform councillors who had refused to talk to his union, accusing teachers of indoctrination. “I’m not sure any of us have really come to terms with how far politics has shifted and what those risks actually mean,” he said.
But Wrack also cautioned that Burnham as leader could not simply continue the current government’s approach. He said NASUWT members were shocked that a recent government white paper retained the expectation that all schools should join academy trusts – a policy inherited from the Tories. “People expected something different from the Labour government, and what we’ve got is a continuation of Tory policy on academisation,” he said. He expressed hope that Burnham would reverse that decision if he became prime minister.
With the byelection hours away, the question now is whether Burnham will win – and how quickly he will move to force a leadership contest that could reshape British politics.