Andy Burnham criticises ‘bankruptcy’ of Labour approach to campaigning | Labour
Andy Burnham has reignited hostilities with Keir Starmer’s Labor leadership by criticizing what he described as the “bankruptcy” of the party’s campaign approach, a week after the party lost the previously safe seat of Gorton and Denton.
The Greater Manchester mayor and former MP, seen as a rival to Starmer, said Labor’s campaigning style prevented it from connecting with non-Labour voters and other progressive parties, recalling clipboard-holding canvassers going door to door with records of previous Labor supporters.
“What I want to say today is that it is absolutely time to have a serious conversation about our political system and its pervasive culture, especially in the wake of the Gorton and Denton by-election,” Burnham said in a speech at the British Library in London that reignited speculation that she had not given up on replacing Starmer. he said.
“It revealed the full depth of the gulf between people and Westminster politics. I don’t think anyone could seriously object to that statement.”
Burnham was speaking a week after he lost his once-safe seat in Labor’s Manchester constituency after Starmer and his allies blocked him from becoming the party’s candidate.
Labor deputy leader and Burnham ally Lucy Powell said she would win the contest won by Greens candidate Hannah Spencer. Labor came third and Reform UK came second.
Burnham described the poll by More in Common, which found the majority of people think the cost of living crisis will never end, as a “code red for Westminster politics”.
“This is becoming extremely dangerous and change is sorely needed in our political system and culture,” he added.
The mayor answered a series of questions after a speech at an event organized by the Center for Cities, but remained silent after think tank president Andrew Carter said a question about allegations of so-called “family voting” irregularities did not comply with the “rules” of the event.
In her speech, Burnham launched a devastating attack on her colleagues in the UK government, claiming Westminster and Whitehall no longer appear to want to “share growth” with regions such as the north of England.
He also made the audience laugh when he said he wanted to make Manchester the UK’s “leading green city”, adding: “Some might say there has been a step in that direction recently.”
Burnham said he wanted to use the speech to set out in detail for the first time his vision of what he described as “Manchesterism”; it is a form of government associated with the former MP’s apparent attitude towards the Labor leadership but which he describes as “the opposite of Westminsterism”.
But he also predicted disillusionment with Whitehall and railed against what he described as “the system’s resistance to liberating us further”.
“After 10 years of devolution, they’re still pushing us away as if they have all the answers, and they’re still holding on and refusing to hand over,” he told the audience.
“I’m getting to the point where I refuse to spend any more of my time making the case. It suggests they don’t actually want growth everywhere. They just want to hold on to things here. We need Whitehall reform but we also need Westminster reform.”
