Andy Burnham’s Question Time confession kicked off a summer of chaos

Last night’s Question Time from Makerfield, scene of a by-election later this month that could upend British politics, was touted as a blockbuster event, a chance to see where we stood ahead of voters going to the polls on June 18. 

In many ways, it delivered – with Andy Burnham breaking cover to confirm that he would challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour Party leadership, and the keys to Number 10, if he triumphs in the constituency. 

But in all honesty, the by-election has been a foregone conclusion for a while now, and Burnham knows it. 

That, alongside Starmer’s apparent willingness to cling on in Number 10 until he’s forcibly removed by bailiffs, meant that the Manchester Mayor threw caution to the wind on Question Time. 

Taking the by-election first – Burnham has always been the favourite, but frankly his opponents on the right and the left have gifted him an easy route back to parliament. 

Reform selected local tradesman Robert Kenyon for this most crucial of contests, and it wasn’t long before he showed just how singularly unsuited he was for the spotlight. 

Visibly terrified under the studio lights on Thursday, he was pressed on his previous sexist comments about Carol Vorderman, not by Burnham, but by Green candidate Sarah Wakefield. 

Robert Kenyon referred to his female-centric upbringing in a bid to ‘address the issue’, a hardly novel spin on the Chris Finch defence, when the infamously sleazy villain of the British Office asked ‘how can I hate women? My mum’s one.’ 

For a man who railed against career politicians, Kenyon spent much of the hour-long show sticking rigidly to clearly rehearsed lines, and as a consequence looking about as down-to-earth as Keir Starmer in a Wetherspoons. 

It is not just Reform who have unwillingly assisted Burnham back to Westminster – Restore UK, the brainchild of Rupert Lowe (formerly a Reform MP), are consistently outflanking Farage’s party from the right.

Endorsed by Elon Musk, and armed with questionable polling about their own success, Lowe’s upstart movement has clearly caused a stir in the by-election. Nationally, many people think that threat on their right flank is what drove Reform’s ‘White Lives Matter’ response to the killing of Henry Nowak. 

Apart from Kenyon being made to sweat, Question Time was fairly low key, and even Burnham’s declaration that he would take part in a leadership contest was more ‘oh, go on then’ then tubthumping. 

But declare he did. 

Burnham knows, despite his modesty yesterday in ‘taking nothing for granted’ that only an unprecedented disaster will stop him winning in a few weeks. 

A poll on Thursday (albeit with a normal sample size than usual) had the Mayor 10 points ahead of the hapless Kenyon. 

His personality in Greater Manchester is well known, and the prospect of removing Starmer and getting their own man is clearly tempting for voters in the North West. 

Which brings us to the Prime Minister. 

A few weeks ago, the well connected Dan Hodges revealed that Starmer, despite surviving the immediate danger of over 100 MPs calling for him to go and Wes Streeting’s resignation, had accepted that the writing was on the wall. 

The PM, Hodges revealed, would soon ‘set out a timetable’, with allies saying that it could even come in advance of the by-election to avoid the indignity of being effectively bullied out of office by Burnham. 

Now, however, the mood music appears to be changing, and that is why Burnham could no longer afford to hedge his bets on Question Time. 

Starmer is stepping up his policy announcements, and laying the groundwork for his promised ‘decade’ in office, despite scepticism from all sides that he’ll even last the summer. 

Far from resigning in advance of the by-election, Starmer revealed that on June 11 he’ll unveil the details of an £18 billion defence plan. 

The government as a whole (and particularly individual ministers like Pat McFadden and Darren Jones) might have been embarrassed by Monday’s new batch of Mandelson files, but Starmer himself emerged relatively unscathed. 

A cynic might suggest that’s because the Prime Minister is something of a bystander in his own administration, but the fact remains that Starmer seems strangely buoyed recently. Spoiling for a fight, not demob happy. 

Today, he told LBC that he won’t walk away, and that a leadership campaign isn’t good for the country.

Soon, he won’t have the luxury of choice.

Because while Burnham conceded that Wes Streeting had fired the starting pistol on the leadership contest, it seems obvious he’s going to have to turn his own gun at the Prime Minister himself. 

Starmer’s plans for a dignified exit seem to have given way to strategizing over a Summer showdown with the King in the North. 

Burnham, who bookmakers give an 85% chance of winning in Makerfield, may have feigned hesitation when pressed on Question Time last night, but after watching his Reform opponent’s flapping, he had to lay down a market. 

Already, Number 10 has stressed that ‘the process hasn’t been triggered’ for a Labour leadership contest. 

Technically that may be true, but last night Burnham pulled his own trigger, and the chaos could yet last for months. 

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing Ross.Mccafferty@metro.co.uk. 

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