Starmer’s allies are putting faction ahead of party in trying to block Andy Burnham’s return to Parliament.

“Keir Starmer’s allies have launched a ‘Stop Andy Burnham’ campaign to prevent the Labour mayor from returning to Parliament after the resignation of a Manchester MP triggered a byelection,” reports today’s Guardian.

“Multiple members of the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) predicted it would be impossible for Burnham to make it through the selection process given the number of Starmer loyalists on the body desperate to avoid a leadership challenge.”

One might think that a confident Labour leader would welcome the experience and ability that the mayor of Greater Manchester could bring to the Government’s front bench. Instead, the faction controlling the Labour Party has been working flat out to put any  number of obstacles in the path of Burnham’s return to Parliament.

A month ago, it was suggested that Andy Burnham could be blocked from returning to Parliament by gender balance concerns. “It is unlikely that a male candidate would be put forward for shortlist in any forthcoming by-election,” reported the New Statesman.

But yesterday, former Labour List editor Sienna Rogers pointed out that “there is no such thing as formal all-women shortlists in by-elections, that’s only in general elections.”

Instead, the latest wheeze seems to be that the Party could decide to run an all-Black and minority ethnic shortlist of candidates.

It’s worth noting that so far Andy Burnham has not even expressed an interest in the byelection seat. The idea that he might, according to one anonymous Starmer loyalist, is “nearly criminal.”

Hurdles

Burnham faces a number of hurdles. His opponents are talking up the high cost of his standing down as Manchester mayor and the need for a mayoral byelection which might not automatically be a Labour shoo-in. Furthermore, a new clause in Labour’s rule book says: “Dir­ectly elec­ted may­ors… must seek the express per­mis­sion of the NEC… before seek­ing nom­in­a­tion as Labour can­did­ates for the West­min­ster Par­lia­ment.” There is no guarantee that the NEC would give that permission.

With Labour’s NEC dominated by Starmer loyalists, there is no guarantee that Burnham would then be allowed onto the panel, which would be supervised by a handpicked group. Members of the NEC approached by the Guardian gave him no chance at all.

Pushback

But this is a high-risk strategy by the leadership faction. If Burnham is barred from running in the parliamentary byelection, the seat could go to Reform, polls show, despite a current Labour majority of over 13,000, adding further to Keir Starmer’s woes. Burnham alone, whose personal popularity and record in office brings more than just Labour support, has a good chance of winning the seat.

Senior Labour figures have pushed back against the leadership’s plot to block Burnham. Former Shadow Cabinet member Jon Trickett MP posted: “I am fed up to the back teeth of London-based hacks who work in the dark imposing their ideas on the North.”

Labour peer Baroness Lister said: “Anonymous and divisive briefings from the NEC today suggest that little has been learnt from the Forde Report on party culture that I was part of producing. In a by-election in Gorton and Denton, party members – and local people – must be afforded the opportunity to select and elect the strongest possible Labour candidate.”

It’s not just the Forde Report that the leadership faction has failed to learn from. One of the main reasons Labour lost the safe seat of Caerphilly to Plaid Cymru last October was because the Party barred a popular local candidate and imposed someone with little support in the constituency.

Leading trade unionists are also keen to avoid a stitch-up. Andrea Egan, newly elected General Secretary of Britain’s largest union Unison, posted today: “I’m sure all trade unionists expect a democratic process for Gorton & Denton in which  local party members decide who they want to represent them. We’ve seen enough control-freakery in the Labour Party and it has done our movement nothing but harm.”

High stakes

The threat to Starmer as leader from a newly elected Andy Burnham would increase dramatically if Labour performs badly in May’s local and devolved elections, as is expected. Already, according to YouGov, 75% of voters have an unfavourable view of Keir Starmer, compared to 18% who have a favourable view. That gives him a net favourability rating of minus 57. But blocking him at this stage could also backfire. “I basically think if they block him, then ironically it’s the end for Starmer,” one Labour MP told Sienna Rogers.

Others were quick to point out how Starmer’s allies were placing factional interests above the needs of the Party overall. “Labour’s masters would rather burn the party to the ground than allow even a vaguely progressive politician to become leader,” noted Owen Jones.

Andrew Fisher, Labour’s former Director of Policy under leader Jeremy Corbyn, took a similar view. “Would you like the one Labour figure who polls well available to lead the party? No, we’re sectarian idiots and proud,” he posted. YouGov says that Andy Burnham is one of the few politicians to not currently have a negative net favourability rating among British voters.

In fact, Burnham is Labour’s most popular politician, eclipsing the  ratings of any member of the Labour Cabinet. If Starmer is forced to quit after May, the leadership faction would hope to install a co-thinker from the same wing of the Party – in fact, many think this is already being plotted. But it’s the policies of the Labour Government more than the personalities that have made it so unpopular, with the last three months of 2025 being Labour’s worst quarter for byelection results. Replacing Starmer with someone committed to same agenda of austerity, privatisation and authoritarianism would not turn this around. On the contrary, it cold pave the way for a Labour wipeout and the most right wing government in recent history at the next general election.

These are the stakes. It’s not that we believe Andy Burnham has all the answers. It’s a recognition that, having set out a platform significantly to the left of the Starmer Government and achieved a degree to personal popularity by his capable administration of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham as a future leader has the best chance of making a substantial improvement to the lives of working class people and improving Labour’s fortunes in the future.

Image: Andy Burnham https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andy_Burnham_on_13_August_2024_%28cropped_2%29.jpg Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/26320652@N02/53921141434/. Author: Scottish Government, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.