Allies of Andy Burnham have warned against a “coronation” for Wes Streeting as the next prime minister and called on Labour’s ruling body to allow the mayor of Manchester to stand for the party leadership.
As UK prime minister Keir Starmer attempted to face down mounting calls for his resignation on Tuesday, sources close to Burnham demanded immediate assurances from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) that he would not be blocked from contesting a parliamentary byelection.
Burnham is regarded as a potential replacement for Starmer. However, he will be unable to mount a challenge until he becomes an MP.
His hopes of returning to Westminster were dealt a blow as the Merseyside MP whose seat had been named by key allies for a potential byelection said she would not stand down, and backed Starmer to stay in office.
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Marie Rimmer, the MP for St Helens South and Whiston, said Burnham had not spoken to her “in years”, and that her priority was to avoid the chaos of a leadership contest.
Allies of Burnham (56) had said Rimmer’s seat was one possibly in contention for him to fight a byelection.
But Rimmer, who has been an MP since 2015, said: “I’m not planning to stand down for anybody. I was selected by my constituency party and it’s my constituency party who decides who stands. I’ve not spoken to Andy Burnham in years and neither has he spoken to me.”
Allies of Burnham said the two had in fact spoken recently.
Rimmer (78), said she had experienced ill health but had not stopped working and had not held any conversations with the Labour Party about her future.
She said she did not believe Starmer should stand down as prime minister. “I don’t think it’s the right thing to do. It’s chaos. We will end up looking like the Tories. There’s far too much going on in the world today. It’s just a nonsense to me, panic stations like this.”
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She said the speculation she could give up her seat for Burnham had been “annoying because there’s a lot going on”. The last time she spoke to Burnham was in the last general election campaign, she said, adding that they “get on well”.
One local MP said: “St Helen’s would be tough, but it’s right next door to Andy’s old seat of Leigh, and he thinks people know him there.”
More than 80 MPs have called on Starmer to quit as prime minister after dire local and devolved election results in England, Scotland and Wales. Many of them are supporters of Burnham who have published letters calling for Starmer to set out a timetable for an “orderly transition” that would let the mayor seek a seat.
Writing in the Guardian on Tuesday, one of Burnham’s closest allies, Neal Lawson, said only 10 people stood in the former Labour MP’s way: the officers’ group of the NEC, which blocked Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection.
“The Labour Party must now do what it takes to ensure that Burnham is available to be the next leader of the party and the country,” he wrote.
“This must start with an urgent statement from the party’s ruling national executive committee saying that if Burnham wanted to fight any direct vacancy then he would be allowed through for local members to decide whether they wanted him as their candidate, alongside a timetable that allows him to enter the contest.”
Separately, another close ally of Burnham expressed frustration at what they saw as Streeting’s attempts to engineer a rapid succession that would keep the mayor out of the leadership race.
“We can’t afford a coronation from Keir to Wes or whatever – that’s not going to cut it with the country,” they said.
Asked whether an MP could stand aside for Burnham in the next 48 hours, they said: “Honestly, nobody knows because each of the [potential candidates] have their own complexities. There’s a lot of work going on from colleagues who are desperate for Andy to get back to Westminster.”
Sources on Labour’s ruling NEC suggested they could take a different course next time.
“The officers’ group could move if there was clearly a question mark over political authority. But there would have to be a byelection called first before we know whether that is the case,” one said. Another said “things could move” should Starmer clearly not have support to continue as prime minister.
Supporters of Streeting have also begun calling for the prime minister to go and to oversee a “swift” transition that would favour the health secretary if Burnham could not find a seat where he could stand in a byelection. – Guardian
