Andy Burnham accused No10 of lying about the by-election spat today as the Labour revolt against Keir Starmer mounts.
The Greater Manchester mayor said claims he had been told that the party’s ruling national executive committee would reject his bid to stand in the Commons contest were ‘simply not true’.
Downing Street sources have been briefing that Mr Burnham went ahead with a formal application to be the Gorton & Denton candidate on Saturday despite the warning.
Sir Keir has dismissed calls from more than 50 MPs for a rethink of the decision, with allies saying the issue is ‘done and dusted’.
Meanwhile, tensions have been rising with unions after the new head of Unison Andrea Egan called for a lurch to the Left. She warned that the party ‘cannot allow those currently in charge to take us down with them’.
There are signs that Angela Rayner is positioning for a tilt at the top job after she gave a speech last night insisting the party has to stop blundering and be ‘unapologetically Labour’.
Senior figures acknowledge that Labour is staring down the barrel of losing Gorton & Denton in the contest – being rushed through on February 26.
Reform and the Greens are both bullish about their chances, despite former MP Andrew Gwynne having secured a 13,000 majority in 2024.
Having barred Mr Burnham, Labour looks to be struggling to find a big name to be its candidate. Manchester council leader Bev Craig ruled herself out last night.
However, the PM has sounded defiance, stressing that Mr Burnham was refused permission because he would have triggered an election for Manchester mayor, rather than due to the threat of a leadership challenge.
Sir Keir told comedian Matt Forde’s podcast last night: ‘What the NEC decided was we didn’t want to open up another front for a fight we didn’t have to have, which was the mayoralty in Greater Manchester … it wasn’t actually about the individual at all.’
A source close to the PM told ITV News that Mr Burnham had been warned of the mood on the NEC before his application was made.
However, the mayor publicly disputed that today in a post on X. And a source told ITV: ‘Andy Burnham is seeking an urgent call with No 10 about the briefing which he says is untrue and breaks a commitment given to him by the PM.’
Touring broadcast studios this morning, Housing Secretary Steve Reed insisted the decision was ‘done and dusted’.
‘Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee took a decision overwhelmingly, eight to one, that Andy should stay as mayor of Manchester because he was elected only two years ago to serve a four-year term,’ he said.
‘He made a commitment to serve that four-year term, and it’s reasonable that the people of Manchester should have him continuing doing, frankly, the outstanding job that he’s doing until his term comes to an end.’
‘It’s a decision that’s done and it’s dusted. Now, the Labour Party members in Gorton & Denton will go ahead and they will select the person they want to be the Labour Party candidate in that by-election, and we will then fight to win that by-election.’
More than 50 backbench MPs are understood to have signed a private letter to the PM to complain about a ‘remote stitch-up from a small group of people at the very top in London’.
‘As a former Cabinet member and the current Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, there is no legitimate reason why Andy Burnham should not have the democratic right to put his candidacy to the local people of Gorton and Denton,’ the letter said.
‘This is particularly important as polling clearly shows he may be our very best chance at winning this by-election.’
Writing in Tribune, Ms Egan said: ‘I know that I speak for many of my colleagues across the trade union movement, and in chorus with a significant number of Labour MPs, when I say that we cannot allow those currently in charge of the party to take us down with them.
‘A radical change in direction — in party culture, in policy for the country, in how we deal with the far-right threat — could not be more urgently needed.
‘I am confident that a broad, pluralist coalition across our movement will now come together to ensure we see that change.’
Relations between Sir Keir and Mr Burnham are said to be at a ‘low ebb’, with the mayor having lashed out at the decision to stop him making a return to the Commons.
When Sir Keir’s biographer Tom Baldwin said Labour’s ‘inward-looking psychodrama … does no one any good,’ Mr Burnham replied: ‘I’m not sure losing a by-election does us any good either.’
At an event yesterday, he also made a jibe at the Labour leadership in Westminster, feeding into a growing North-South divide in the party. He said: ‘The Greater Manchester way is built on togetherness. We don’t ever here have a politics that’s about pitting people [against one] another.’
Nigel Farage yesterday gloated that the Greater Manchester mayor would have been ‘very difficult to beat’ in a by-election.
The Reform UK leader said his candidate’s chances had ‘improved massively’ as a result of Mr Burnham being kept off the ballot paper.
