Andy Burnham has been given less than 24 hours to decide on whether he wants to try and return to the House of Commons at an upcoming by-election.
The Greater Manchester mayor – seen as a top candidate to replace Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader and Prime Minister – has long flirted with a return to Westminster.
A route for him to do so has now opened up following the resignation of ex-Labour minister Andrew Gwynne as MP for Gorton and Denton.
Mr Burnham has not yet made his intentions clear, amid claims Sir Keir’s allies could block him from running as they scramble to avoid a future leadership challenge.
But Labour officials have now set a tight timeline for Mr Burnham to make up his mind, with him needing to make a decision by 5pm tomorrow.
This is the deadline for any regional mayors, such as Mr Burnham, to apply for permission to be a parliamentary candidate from Labour’s ruling body.
The National Executive Committee will then draw up a list of candidates on Monday – once a Sunday deadline for applications has passed – before beginning interviews.
Mr Gwynne’s resignation as an MP on medical grounds has plunged Labour into civil war, amid the prospect of a possible leadership challenge by Mr Burnham.
Suggestions that Sir Keir’s supporters on the NEC will try and stop Mr Burnham from standing at the by-election have sparked a backlash from MPs and trade unions.
Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM who remains a key figure in Labour, is said to be among those throwing her weight behind Mr Burnham being allowed to stand.
Andy Burnham has been given less than 24 hours to decide on whether he wants to try and return to the House of Commons at an upcoming by-election
Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM who remains a key figure in Labour, is said to be among those throwing her weight behind Mr Burnham being allowed to stand.
According to The Times, Ms Rayner is supportive of Mr Burnham being allowed to stand in Gorton and Denton.
The newspaper reported she is likely to say so at Labour’s North West regional conference in Liverpool tomorrow.
Some sources have suggested Labour’s shortlist of candidates for the by-election may be made women-only or ethnic minority-only to prevent Mr Burnham from being a candidate.
It has also emerged how Mr Burnham might be lining up ex-Manchester United and England footballer Gary Neville as his replacement as Manchester mayor.
It is thought that having a famous Labour supporter as a candidate would boost the party’s chances of retaining the mayoralty in the face of a challenge by Reform UK.
A Labour insider told The i Paper: ‘If you’re Andy it’s better to have the promise of a big gun rather than popping some unknown council leader on the ballot as the mayoral candidate, then [the mayoralty] falling to Nigel Farage.
‘I think he has somebody in mind in the shape of Gary Neville. Whether or not the party members would respond to that I don’t know.’
Neville is a Labour Party member and appeared alongside Sir Keir in a Labour campaign broadcast ahead of the 2024 general election.
He has also previously appeared on stage at Labour’s annual party conference.
Andrew Gwynne’s resignation as an MP on medical grounds has plunged Labour into civil war, amid the prospect of it paving the way for a possible leadership challenge by Mr Burnham
Gary Neville is a Labour Party member and appeared alongside Sir Keir in a Labour campaign broadcast ahead of the 2024 general election
A Labour MP told Politico’s Playbook ‘it would seem quite small-dick energy from No 10’ if Mr Burnham was barred from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election just to prevent him challenging the PM.
Meanwhile, Bassetlaw MP Jo White, leader of the ‘Red Wall’ group of Labour MPs, said: ‘Let the North decide who their Labour candidate should be for the Gorton and Denton by election. A London stitch up will be a disaster for Labour.’
She was backed by the new general secretary of the Unison union, who was expelled from Labour in 2022.
Andrea Egan said: ‘We’ve seen enough control-freakery in the Labour Party and it has done our movement nothing but harm.’
Connor Naismith, the Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, said: ‘Gorton and Denton deserves the best possible choice of candidates.
‘I agree with the Prime Minister that our attention should be on delivering for the public, not speculating about future leadership contests.
‘Any decision made to limit the choice would be wrong.’
Earlier today, a senior minister heavily suggested that Mr Burnham should stay in his comfort zone in Greater Manchester, where his term as mayor runs until 2028.
Health minister Stephen Kinnock pointedly told BBC Breakfast that Mr Burnham is ‘doing a great job in the role that he currently has’ and is ‘an incredibly talented and effective leader as the mayor of Greater Manchester’.
Sir Keir’s chief of staff Morgan McSweeney is already weighing up whether to use the PM’s majority on the NEC to block Mr Burnham as a candidate.
Party figures could also use the cost of running a mayoral election in Manchester against Mr Burnham. He will have to resign the role to even run in Gorton and Denton, and there are fears Reform could win in a major surge towards Mr Farage’s party.
Labour won Gorton and Denton with a majority of more than 13,000 in the 2024 general election, but it is now seen as a three-way marginal between Labour, Reform and the Green Party.
The PM yesterday refused to say whether he would support Mr Burnham’s candidacy.
But union leaders critical of Sir Keir’s leadership warned against any attempt to ‘stitch up’ the nomination.
Fire Brigades Union chief Steve Wright said it would be ‘a democratic outrage if Andy Burnham was blocked from seeking selection as Labour’s by-election candidate in this seat’.
Mr Wright, whose union has a seat on the NEC, said he would ‘not stand by and allow senior Labour politicians like Andy to be carved out of this process’.
Mr Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, is the favourite to replace Sir Keir among Labour Party members. But he can only challenge the leadership if he has a seat in Parliament.
The MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017, Mr Burnham has stood for leadership on two occasions and has made little secret of his ambition to replace Sir Keir, leading to a cold shoulder from many at last year’s party conference.
He refused to say yesterday whether he will seek to stand in Mr Gwynne’s Gorton and Denton constituency, claiming he had been ‘in the dark’ about his colleague’s intentions.
But his allies told The Mail on Sunday last month he was poised to secure a deal to fight a by-election to return to the Commons.
Mr Gwynne was suspended by Labour last year after The Mail on Sunday uncovered a series of offensive WhatsApp messages he had sent, including one in which he said he hoped for the death of an elderly constituent who complained about bin collections.
He is reported to have cut a deal to retire on health grounds in return for assurances about his MP’s pension. Commons sources suggested the deal would see Mr Gwynne – who is only 51 – paid up until pension age, at which point he would receive a full Parliamentary pension. That package could be worth around £1million, according to one insider.
Mr Kinnock this morning said: ‘I know the Prime Minister and other members of the Cabinet hugely valued the role he (Burnham) played in the aftermath of those awful events at the synagogue in Manchester.
‘So, it’s absolutely clear that Andy’s doing a great job in the role that he currently has.
‘In terms of the selection process for this by-election, it will run according to Labour Party rules and procedures.
‘The NEC will set out those rules and procedures in due course.’
Mr Farage yesterday said Reform would throw everything at the by-election in Gorton and Denton, in a region where Reform is growing in strength.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘This by-election is by no means a certainty for Labour, the Left-wing Greens will split their vote and we will be the challenger. We will give it our all.’
Asked about the possibility of a leadership challenge, the Prime Minister last night told Channel 4 News: ‘My message is to my entire party, and that is that every minute we waste talking about anything other than the cost of living and stability in Europe and across the globe is a wasted minute.’
Polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice said Mr Burnham’s local popularity posed a dilemma for Sir Keir, adding: ‘If Andy Burnham is not the candidate, particularly if he is stopped by Labour, and Labour then lose, Keir Starmer is going to get the blame.
‘If Burnham fights the by-election he will be putting his alleged popularity and ability to turn around Labour’s fortunes to the test. If he loses, that’s the end, but if he wins that could raise questions for the PM.’
There were rumours that Mancunian Green Party leader Zack Polanski could throw his hat in the ring in a bid to win a seat at Westminster. Tory sources also confirmed they would stand a candidate.
