Labour faced the prospect of civil war within the party on Sunday night after Keir Starmer and his allies blocked Andy Burnham’s return to parliament to stave off a potential leadership challenge.
There was widespread anger among Labour MPs and union backers after the 10-strong “officers’ group” of the party’s ruling body, including the prime minister himself, voted overwhelmingly to reject Burnham’s request to seek selection for the upcoming Gorton and Denton byelection.
The national executive committee said picking Burnham would require a hugely expensive and destabilising election to replace him as mayor of Greater Manchester less than halfway through his four-year term.
But MPs from across the party – many despairing at Starmer’s leadership and not all of them natural allies of Burnham – condemned the “petty factionalism”. Another called the decision a “huge mistake”, while a third said the leadership was “mad” not to make more of the self-styled “King of the North”.
Andrea Egan, head of the huge Unison union, a major Labour funder, said members would be “disappointed and angry”. A series of unions are understood to be in discussions about what they may do jointly to try to change the decision. “This is blatant gerrymandering,” one union source said. “It will not do.”
In a brief statement, Burnham said he was “disappointed” by the NEC’s decision, hitting out at “the way the Labour party is being run” under Starmer and raising concerns about the impact of the decision on the byelection. Labour figures across the north-west are concerned that Reform UK could take the seat.
Starmer has faced near-constant internal unrest in recent months, with the party trailing in the polls and many MPs spooked by political misjudgements and the prospect of being wiped out by Reform UK at the next election.
His allies hope that keeping Burnham away from Westminster will shore up the prime minister’s position and avoid damaging internal conflicts dominating the agenda in the run-up to the May elections. It also prevents a potential leadership coup if those go badly – although Burnham had denied this was his intention – and Starmer still faces threats from elsewhere.
But they acknowledge the decision comes at a cost by deepening internal rifts and further eroding party discipline, and that the prime minister could ultimately take the blame if Labour loses the byelection, eroding his position still further.
The decision will also cause disquiet among senior Labour figures, with Ed Miliband, the energy secretary, Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, having called in recent days for Burnham to be allowed to stand in the seat vacated last week for health reasons by the ex-minister Andrew Gwynne.
A similar call came from Angela Rayner. Speaking at a party event on Sunday, shortly before the NEC decision, the former deputy leader said: “I know my friend, the mayor, has put his name forward, and I believe the local members should get the choice, no stitch-ups.”
Powell was the only person to support Burnham’s case in the NEC vote, which he lost eight to one. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, who praised Burnham earlier on Sunday as “an exceptional politician”, abstained because of her neutral role as NEC chair.
The decision would appear to completely stop Burnham’s attempts to return to parliament in the short term, where he would be seen as a major rival to succeed Starmer in the event of a challenge against the prime minister, whose personal poll ratings are disastrous.
A Labour statement said that under party rules, sitting mayors or police and crime commissioners must seek permission to stand for parliament. “The NEC has decided not to grant Andy Burnham permission to stand,” it said.
“The NEC believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources ahead of the local elections and elections to the Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd in May. Although the party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk.
Steve Reed, the communities secretary, defended the decision. “Voters don’t like elections that come midterm,” he told the BBC. “People voted in Greater Manchester overwhelmingly for Andy Burnham to be their mayor two years ago, for a four-year term.”
But a series of MPs condemned the move, among them Louise Haigh, the former transport secretary, who called it “an incredibly disappointing decision”, adding: “The leadership should not feel threatened by having one of the most popular politicians in the country as part of the national team.”
Simon Opher, the Stroud MP who is part of Labour’s 2024 intake, called it “petty factionalism” from Starmer’s aides.
“The voters of Gorton and Denton are being denied the opportunity to choose a brilliant candidate to represent them in parliament, and this risks gifting the seat to Reform in the run-up to the local elections,” he said. “We desperately need to be better than this.”
One source on the party’s soft left said: “No 10 have chosen factionalism over what’s right for the party. They will have to change course, not least once they realise they will lose the byelection without Andy.”
There was no immediate reaction from Burnham. But Mainstream, the left-leaning Labour group associated with the Greater Manchester mayor and other senior figures such as Powell, said: “Labour must reverse this decision if it is serious about putting country before party. We urge the party to reconsider in the interests of taking on Reform and building the strongest possible team in Westminster.”
Another Labour source said the NEC meeting, described as “respectful and collegiate”, had heard concerns about the cost of holding a mayoral byelection to replace Burnham two years into his term, and worries about a divisive campaign by Reform UK.
Supporters of Starmer had argued that Burnham running for parliament would destabilise the government. “At a time of great geopolitical tensions and in the middle of a cost of living crisis, the country would be aghast if the government turned inwards,” one Starmer ally said.
“The chaos and psychodramas of the Tories saw them kicked out of office. The country wants us to get on with governing. We don’t have time for endless speculation.”
“Politically, we would be giving up the certainty of a Labour mayor for the next two years,” the Starmer ally said. “We would be confident of winning again, but Reform would massively out-spend us and it would become a nasty, divisive contest. It would mean gambling with communities and people’s lives.”
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