Starmer defends blocking Andy Burnham from by-election run after backlash

Sir Keir Starmer has defended the decision to refuse Andy Burnham from running in a forthcoming by-election. Burnham, who served in various government roles before stepping down to become Mayor of Greater Manchester, is widely considered a potential leadership challenger to Sir Keir if he returns to Westminster. The National Executive Committee (NEC), which includes Sir Keir, Labour's leader, has barred him from running, according to Labour', the block against him running in Gorton and Denton would

avoid an unNECessary mayoral election. However, several backbenchers have reacted angrily to

petty factional manoeuvring" and are calling for the decision to be reconsidere

Sir Keir maintained on Monday that allowing Burnham to run for a seat in Westminster would divert our funds from very important campaigns in May's polls, where Labour is facing potential losses in the Senedd, Scottish parliament, and English local elections.

We're out campaigning on the cost of living and they're very important elections; we need to keep our attention on those elections,

he said.

Andy Burnham is doing a great job as the mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the mayor defining our funds would take us away from the elections we must have, which we must fight and win.

And resources, whether it's money or people, must be focusing on the elections we must have, not elections that we don't have to have. The NEC's decision was based on this assumption.

Sir Keir praised Burnham's 2015 leadership bid and how the two

work closely together

now, including on the Northern Powerhouse Rail project.

We had to react collectively to the attack in a synagogue in Manchester last year, standing side by side, reassuring the neighborhood,he said. He's doing an excellent job.In order to prevent an anticipated vote at Burnham's leadership, the prime minister said it was a matter of focus and that we must fight where we must fight, which is why the Labour Party changed the rules two years ago to a presumption against holding unnecessary elections. Burnham, who was looking for a response at a Manchester event, told the BBC:

I am not making any remarks. I've said what I wanted to say, and here I am back in my job. My position as Mayor of Greater Manchester puts me completely on display.

When asked if he thinks Sir Keir was afraid of him, he refused to answer, adding: I'm at work. Enjoying the job.We need your help" during the by-election campaign, Burnham said at another function in Manchester. We don't have a politics that is based on comparing people one from another.

Although some Labour MPs have expressed disappointment with the decision to ban Burnham from attending Gorton and Denton, there are others who are relieved that the Manchester mayor has been barred. Some people do not want Labour splits to be revealed in months of public drama, while others want a different candidate to replace Sir Keir if and when the time comes. Labour politicians to BBC's Matt Chorley were split on the decision, with some of them arguing Sir Keir's position was strengthened rather than weakened by weekend events. Several critics have questioned Burnham's renown in the Parliamentary Labour Party, with some questioning whether he will have the 80-odd MPs who are needed to start a leadership race.

Does anyone really think the psychodrama in the last three days would have ended if he had been chosen?

a frustrated cabinet minister wrote. Is Andy Burnham's third revival sorely needed by humanity that returning him to parliament is worth £5 million of everyone's money?

The fact that Burnham believes so makes me more grateful than ever for the decision.

Some believe the prime minister's position is fading, and others are surprised that Sir Keir himself attended the critical meeting that confirmed Burnham's fate. Others are blunter. One MP says,

I suspect he will pay for this in the long run. Everybody just waiting until May.

Nadia Whittome, a Labour MP, told BBC Radio 4's Today show that she disagreed with Burnham's decision to exclude Burnham because local party members should have the right to vote for themselves

in the seat vacated by former Labour MP Andrew Gwynne.

Myself and several other MPs from both of the party, as well as the Mayor of Nottingham East, have stated that blocking our only senior Labour politician with a net positive popularity rating is putting petty factional manoeuvring and settling personal scores above winning elections is risking the seat to Reform.

When asked whether Burnham should continue doing his duties as mayor, Whittome replied,

Let's be honest, that is not the reason he was refused.

We're supportive of a letter sent to Burnham that was apparently circulated among backbenchers that called the call to prevent Burnham from being blocked

remote stitch-up

and not to those at the top of the party, not to some of the people at the front of the group, who are destroying the party we love,

she said. However, Baroness Harman, a former Labour deputy leader, told the same program that she was slightly baffled why Burnham applied when it

could or should have been clear to him that it would end up as it is now,

with the denial.

What was going to be certain was that the NEC would endorse the prime minister's position, which they did by eight to one,

she said, adding that it would have been better for him not to apply.Sinspending us at the time ten to one,Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander toldNadia is correct

about the importance of the coming months for Labour, but defended the NEC's decision because of the electoral danger from Reform, who argued that reform reform is

outspending you at the moment ten-to-one You've got to ask yourself, the NEC asked themselves, where are the Labour Party's greatest interests, and would our opponents have been celebrating if the Labour party had opted to engage in a psychodrama rather than directing our fire and focusing our attention on Reform, on Plaid Cymru.

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