Andy Burnham seeks permission to stand in by-election
Andy Burnham has announced that he is seeking permission to stand as a candidate in the upcoming Gorton and Denton parliamentary by-elections.
If she wins and becomes an MP, Burnham could launch a leadership challenge against Sir Keir Starmer, but the BBC has been told the prime minister’s allies may try to stop her from standing in the constituency.
Burnham is currently the mayor of Greater Manchester and in a statement stressed that he wanted to support the Labor government “not undermine” it, adding that the decision to announce his intentions was “difficult”.
The seat in Greater Manchester remains vacant after Andrew Gwynne stood down as MP for health reasons on Friday.
As a directly elected mayor, Burnham needs approval from Labour’s ruling national executive committee to enter the race to become the party’s candidate.
Several Labor MPs reacted angrily to the suggestion that he could be prevented from standing.
Some senior figures in the party also said they believed Burnham should be allowed to stand.
Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said: “If Andy Burnham wants to be a member of Parliament, Andy Burnham should be allowed to be a member of Parliament.”
Energy Minister Ed Miliband said Burnham would be a major asset in Parliament and hoped Gorton and Denton party members would have the “option” of choosing her as a candidate.
In his letter to the NEC, Shared on social media “A style of politics that aims to pit people against each other is a direct threat to everything Greater Manchester has always been about,” Burnham said.
“I see this by-election as the front line in the fight for Manchester Way and, despite the risks involved, I feel I owe it to a city that has given me so much to lead from the front.”
He said he left Westminster nearly a decade ago because he believed “it wasn’t working for people in our world” and that as mayor he was “trying to pioneer a different way of doing things.”
But he added that he believed Manchester “could not be what it should be without similar changes at a national level”.
“That’s why I feel the need to go back.”
