Keir Starmer’s deputy Lucy Powell tells him to ‘be more like Andy Burnham’ as he fights to survive as PM
Keir Starmer’s aide told him he should take a lesson from Andy Burnham and include the Mayor of Manchester, who is trying to salvage his premiership, into his inner circle.
Comments from Labor deputy leader Lucy Powell are increasing pressure on the prime minister, as speculation grows about a coup by Labor MPs following their embarrassing third-place finish in the Gorton and Denton byelections.
Ms Powell helped manage the unsuccessful by-election campaign in Greater Manchester but was the only member of the National Executive Committee to allow Mr Burnham to stand.
Sir Keir personally blocked Mr Burnham from standing, and many Labor MPs have since claimed the Greater Manchester Mayor could have prevented a Greens victory and won Labour’s seventh safest seat.
Asked on BBC news broadcast If the Prime Minister was to resemble Mr Burnham, who is popular in the polls, Ms Powell said: “Well, look, let’s learn from Andy and get Andy more involved in what we do.”
Asked if Mr Burnham would take the seat for Labour, he said: “He probably would because the Greens certainly wouldn’t go after the seat like they did.”
Ms Powell said she accepted collective responsibility for preventing Mr Burnham from running, but noted: “I was the only person who voted for him to be allowed to run in this by-election.”
Sir Keir claimed at the time that he blocked Mr Burnham because it would mean an election for mayor of Greater Manchester that the party feared it would lose.
But others believed Mr Burnham could have succeeded Sir Keir as Labor leader and prime minister had he entered parliament.
The party instead chose local councilor Angeliki Stogia as its candidate. The winner came third behind the Green Party’s Hannah Spencer and Reform England’s Matthew Goodwin.
The row comes as MPs on the party’s left step up pressure on another scandal rocking Sir Keir’s leadership by sending subject access requests to the Labor Together think tank and PR firm APCO, which they hired to investigate journalists who criticize them.
The think tank, run by Sir Keir’s former private secretary Morgan McSweeney, was central to attempts to wrest Labor back from the left-wing leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and later install Sir Keir as leader.
But he is accused of trying to smear journalists investigating his donations. Now Labor MPs Richard Burgon and John McDonnell have confirmed this. Independent He said that they requested all documents related to them from both the think tank and APCO.
Josh Simons dramatically resigned as a Cabinet Office minister on Saturday, citing his previous role in Labor Together recruiting APCO as a “distraction”. Mr Simons and Labor Together said APCO was hired only to investigate a leak, not to run a smear campaign.
While Mr Burnham is yet to comment on the results at Gorton and Denton, Sir Keir vowed to fight on despite the “disappointing” result.
