Andy Burnham has confirmed he will run to stand as a candidate for Labour in the Gorton and Denton by-election after Andrew Gwynne resigned as an MP.
The Manchester Mayor’s application to stand as a candidate now gives senior Labour figures a fresh headache given his openness around his leadership ambitions.
He has already received the backing to run from London mayor Sadiq Khan and energy secretary Ed Miliband.
In a letter to the chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee, which will give the Manchester mayor permission to apply to stand as an MP, seeking permission to enter the selection process, Burnham said: “In my current job, I have tried to pioneer a different way of doing things with some success.
“But I have learnt in my nine years as mayor that Manchester won’t be able to be everything it should be without similar changes at a national level. This is why I feel the need to go back.
“My role in returning would be to use my experience to help it to go further and faster, as well as communicate the difference it is making. I would be there to support the work of the Government, not undermine it, and I have passed on this assurance to the Prime Minister
He also appeared to take swipes at Reform in his letter.
“There is now a direct threat to everything Greater Manchester has always been about from a brand of politics which seeks to pit people against each other.
It brings with it a poison we should not let enter our city-region. I see this by-election as the frontline of that fight for the Manchester Way and I feel I owe it to a city which has given me so much to lead it from the front, despite the risks involved.”
Starmer’s new Burnham headache
Officers on the NEC include Prime Minister Keir Starmer, home secretary Shabana Mahmood, deputy leader Lucy Powell and solicitor general Ellie Reeves.
The members of the committee will decide on which Labour candidate will stand in the upcoming by-election.
City traders will be closely watching to see the developments of the party’s leadership battles given Burnham’s repeated criticism of the government for being “in hock to the bond markets”.
He made the first set of comments in an interview with the New Statesman last year but repeated his criticism of the government’s fiscal policy this week.
The mayor said the UK was “in a low growth doom loop” and “our shallow, adversarial political system has shown itself incapable of lifting us out of it and it only adds to the volatility, so we do find ourselves stuck in a rut and in hock to the bond markets”.
He also called for “business-friendly socialism” to be introduced in government while advocating for greater public ownership across various sectors including water and rail.
All eyes will be on bond market movements on Monday, with intense political debates to erupt on whether Burnham should be allowed to stand.
Angela Rayner is reported to back Burnham’s return to Westminster.
But Starmer may be worried that it could put his position as Prime Minister under threat as it could pave the way for a new leadership contest after the May elections.
