Burnham-Streeting latest: Leadership candidate’s call for UK to rejoin EU pulls Labour back into Brexit wars

Lisa Nandy said revisiting the Brexit debate was like saying “life was good in 2015, we just need to get back there” as she slammed Labor colleague Wes Streeting.

The culture secretary told Sky News’ Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips: “I love and respect Wes very much and I listened carefully to what he said yesterday, I think you know I have a different perspective on this and that’s what we do as a government.”

Labor MP Josh Simons, who announced on Thursday that he would give up his seat to make way for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to return to Parliament, said the party needed to “come together” to support him.

“If Andy wins the by-election, my view is that the different parts of the party need to come together behind Andy,” he told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg.

Asked if this would mean “the end of Keir Starmer”, Mr Simons said: “So yes.”

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Culture minister Lisa Nandy accused Wes Streeting of “restarting the Brexit wars” as he became the first Labor cabinet minister to be taken up over his call to rejoin the EU.

He told Sky News the government was “trying to take a much more pragmatic approach” to bring Britain closer to the bloc.

It was about “repairing some of the damage that a bad Brexit deal has done to the living standards of people in parts of the country like mine, rather than restarting the Brexit wars.”

He added: “I think it’s a bit strange, to be honest.”

He said last week that some parts of the country he represents, such as Wigan, had lost large numbers of councilors due to pro-Brexit Reform.

He added: “If the answer is to rejoin the EU then we’re essentially telling people life was OK in 2015, we just need to get back there. I know Wes will be coming to campaign in the by-election very soon. He’ll be hearing loud and clear from people in places like Wigan… that’s simply not the case and the response needs to be bigger. This government’s focus should be on good jobs, housing, living standards, energy costs, providing opportunities for young people.”

Former Communities Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, who became the first minister to resign from Keir Starmer’s government after the election, said she thought Labor would not be able to enter the leadership race without Andy Burnham.

Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thought with Nick Robinson podcast on Saturday, he said: “I don’t think you can get into a leadership race without him because he has so much support within the Labor Party.”

He added that his background in the city “shows that you can have a vision, you can have a project, and you can execute it in a way that lifts up your communities.”

Tens of thousands of people gathered in London for Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march and the pro-Palestinian Nakba Day rally as police mounted a £4.5 million operation to prevent clashes between rival groups.

The Metropolitan Police said at least 43 people were arrested at both demonstrations for “a range of offences”, adding that while this number “may appear high, to this point both protests have proceeded largely without significant incident”.

More than 4,000 police have been deployed in the capital, with 660 recruited from forces outside the Met to prepare for an “unprecedented” security operation. Armored vehicles, police horses, dogs, drones and helicopters were also at the scene.

“We need a proper contest with the best candidates in the field and I will be standing,” he told reporters at a conference in central London on Saturday.

Mr Streeting, who quit as health secretary this week, also insisted he had enough support among MPs to launch a contest, but suggested his challenge to rival Andy Burnham would be “lacking legitimacy” unless he was given the chance to return to Parliament.

However, according to reports, he will still call for close relations between the UK and the European Union.

If Mr Burnham wins the seat, he will face a challenge from former health secretary Wes Streeting, who has confirmed he will stand to replace Sir Keir Starmer if a Labor leadership contest is triggered.

Andy Burnham has said he will run in the Makerfield by-election to “save” Labor.

Speaking to the BBC, the mayor of Greater Manchester said Labor had to accept that it was “not good enough” and added that it “requires a lot of change”.

“I firmly want the Labor Party to be part of the working class, working class people and that requires a lot of change,” he added.

This comes after he was given the go-ahead by the NEC to run in the by-election.

Andy Burnham called for education reform and an end to the housing crisis.

In an interview with Mirror Mr Burnham outlined his policies and said he wanted to reform education and put technical education on par with the academic university route.

He also warned there would be no stability in Britain until we “end the housing crisis” and called for more social housing.

The Mayor of Manchester also said he supported proportional representation in Westminster elections to help build “a new politics and a different way of thinking”.