How team Burnham finally cleared the first of many hurdles on route to Westminster | Andy Burnham

FFor weeks, Andy Burnham’s supporters had told MPs to “hold the line”, that he had a seat in parliament and would run in any leadership race. This was never the whole truth.

If he succeeds, his path to No 10 is littered with more failed attempts than almost any other politician. Two leadership races, a return hurdle in Gorton and Denton and many aggrieved MPs in the north-west who have had to resist suggestions for weeks that they would give up their seats to him.

By Thursday this week, with almost all the potential candidates eliminated, Burnham’s supporters in parliament were despairing. Only a handful of the Greater Manchester mayor’s closest advisers knew the truth: a seat no one expected was finally on the cards.

A bombshell dropped when Wes Streeting announced his resignation from Keir Starmer’s cabinet at 1pm on Thursday; From the outside, things didn’t look very promising. Streeting had not launched a leadership bid and Burnham apparently still did not have a seat in Westminster from which he could mount his own challenge.

Burnham, out of parliament, did not appear to have gone any further than the last time he led the charge; This ended when Labor’s national executive committee refused to allow him to stand as a candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-elections.

The mood among his supporters was somber. “This is a shitty cocktail,” one said. “We are all doomed.” But Burnham, as other famous northerners have said, managed to get by with a little help from her friends. Behind the scenes, his team got to work and an opportunity finally presented itself on Thursday.

“It’s always been about just sitting around and waiting,” a source close to Burnham said. Although there was no open seat, there was a feeling that Labour’s dismal performance in Gorton and Denton, as well as disastrous results in local elections, “could pave the way for a comeback”.

But the confidence in hindsight masks what has been a troublesome week for the Burnham team. As a guessing game was played in the parliamentary press gallery about who would give up their seat, the names and rejections began to pile up.

Liverpool Wavertree MP Paula Barker said she would be delighted if a place was found for Burnham, however, BBC asked if he gave up his, the answer was: “No.” All five MPs whose seats were linked to Burnham’s leadership bid refused to stand down.

Those close to the Burnham campaign appear to have had one seat on their mind last weekend: Afzal Khan’s seat of Manchester Rusholme. However, Khan is thought to have changed his mind after some MPs suggested that interventions from No 10 played a role.

St Helens South and Whiston MP Marie Rimmer is said to hold the other seat. Not for him. Asked if he had been approached by Burnham’s allies, Rimmer told the Guardian: “I just said, ‘No, absolutely not.'” “I was actually horrified. I was truly insulted and disgusted.”

Nerves were tense behind the scenes. A Labor source said Burnham’s team had “forced people to resign” and even offered the mayoralty of Greater Manchester in exchange for a parliamentary seat. Khan was said to have been offered a seat in the Lords. But he rejected the suggestion, telling the Guardian: “There was never any question of me giving up my seat, it’s not right.”

On Tuesday Burnham was on the west coast mainline in an attempt to personally win over MPs and unions as negotiations intensified. Some MPs told Burnham they supported her but were worried about the financial consequences of losing their jobs.

Then out of nowhere came a wildcard. Talks began with Makerfield MP Josh Simons, 32, who has long been disappointed with Starmer and believed more than a year ago that Burnham should be the next prime minister. The pair have become close over the past two years, with Burnham, not Whitehall, coming to his aid after major flooding at Platt Bridge.

“I think being an MP for his constituency radicalized Josh about how broken the country was,” a friend said. “He’s so young, it’s a big sacrifice.”

Another close friend said: “Burnham knows how to defend the people, not the system.”

The Guardian understands Simons began seriously considering giving up his seat this week. The final decision was made after Burnham went to see Simons at his home with his wife, Leah, an American economist whom Simons had met at Harvard and who had recently given birth to their third child. They spent two hours asking in-depth questions about Burnham’s plan for government, her economic strategy, her position on financial markets and what she might actually do while in office.

Then at 5.14pm on Thursday, just over five hours after Streeting resigned, Simons announced he was stepping aside to pave the way for Burnham to Westminster.

But while the veteran politician has finally overcome the first hurdle, others still remain. Labor’s majority in Makerfield is just 5,399 in 2024 and Reform UK won every ward of the constituency in last week’s local elections. Nigel Farage has said his party will “go all out” in the by-election, while the Greens have indicated they will contest accordingly.

Simons told the Guardian that Burnham’s success was existential. “The election story perfectly encapsulates the moral story; this is the challenge of our time,” he said.

“We’re where the Democrats are in 2021, heading towards oblivion with an unheralded Prime Minister. We just needed something that could change the narrative. Burnham’s win at Wigan delivers that.”

Just 25 minutes after Simons announced he would step aside, Burnham confirmed he would run. “There is so much that can be done from Greater Manchester,” he said in a statement. “That’s why I’m seeking public support to return to parliament: to bring the same change we brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and to make politics work properly for people.”

And when the candidate took to the streets around his home for a run in an old football jersey on Friday, the message was clear: he’s running.