Norwich MP Clive Lewis offers seat to Burnham for Starmer challenge
Labor MP Clive Lewis has offered to give up his seat so Andy Burnham can challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labor leadership.
there was ongoing speculation The Mayor of Manchester said Burnham wanted to appoint Sir Keir to the top job, but for this he had to become an MP.
Lewis told the BBC’s Politics Live program that he was willing to leave his Norwich South seat to allow Burnham to return to the House of Commons and put “country before party, party before personal ambition”.
Burnham has been contacted for comment. Number 10 declined to comment.
Lewis, who has been an MP for 10 years, said he had spoken to Burnham and when asked if she would give up the seat for him, he said it was “a question I’ve been asking myself”.
He added: “You know what? If I sit here and say country before party, party before personal ambition, then yes, I have to say yes, right?”
Last week he said Sir Keir’s position as prime minister was “untenable” and told Channel 4 News Burnham should be given the chance to “step up”.
Lewis first won his seat in 2015 and increased his majority to more than 13,000 last year.
But if he were to resign, any successor would have to first win an election contest before a by-election could be held.
In September, Burnham said: “We have no intention of leaving Manchester” but he did not rule out challenging Sir Keir after a series of interviews in which he said colleagues had urged him to stand up.
Two Manchester Labor MPs, Andrew Gwynne and Graham Stringer, refused to stand by him ahead of the party’s conference in September.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir said: Leading Labor to the next general election. It follows a troubled period last week when journalists were given anonymous briefings that some cabinet ministers were plotting to sack him.
The ministers concerned insisted that this was not the case; But speculation continues as to whether the Prime Minister will face a challenge in May, when Labor is expected to perform poorly in Scottish and Welsh elections and English local elections.
Anyone making a leadership bid will need to have the support of 80 Labor MPs.
