‘If the call came, I’m not going to just turn away from it’
Andy Burnham has said he believes people ‘underestimate’ what a ‘wrench’ it would be for him to leave his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester as he responded to again being touted as a potential leader of his party.
However he said that ‘if the call came’ to return to government, ‘I’m not going to just turn away from it.’ Mr Burnham was quizzed about being included on a survey canvassing opinion on potential replacements for Sir Keir Starmer.
The Times reported this week that Mr Burnham was one of eight names included on the survey sent to local Labour parties, where the think tank Labour Together asked activists who ‘stood the best chance of leading Labour to electoral victory at the next general election.’
Asked about the development by ITV News, Mr Burnham said it was ‘nothing to do with me.’ “I’m not putting my name in those surveys” he told the broadcaster. “Westminster does what it does and I get, often, drawn in without being involved in it all.”
And he spoke of his ‘passion’ for his current role, for which he was re-elected for a third term last May. “I think people underestimate what a wrench it would be for me to leave this job.” he said. “I have loved this job. Everything about it. I think what we’re building here is kind of what the country needs a bit more of.
“We’re using power to get closer to people. Place first rather than party first. We’re really using devolved power here. I think that because of that its devolution that has the energy in British politics right now.
“People always ask me about Westminster. I left for a reason. And what we have built here is the new thing, that I think, is what we need.”
He said over the last decade Greater Manchester had become ‘more and more functional as the country has become more and more dysfunctional.’
Asked if he wanted to ‘do for the country what you’ve done for Greater Manchester?’ he said: “It’s not my call. I’m not an MP, I can’t stand in a leadership race. It’s not for me. It would be for other people in Westminster, to decide.
“I want to support the government. I’m here to make a success of this Labour government. I don’t know if people there think I could have a role in that, in any capacity. And I mean in any capacity, when I say that.
“Then of course, if the call came, I’m not going to just turn away from it. But I want the government to succeed. And I think the government could succeed by really setting us up to go for it on all the things I’ve been talking about.”
He added he believed that fixing the housing crisis should ‘become a really clear, dominant theme’ for the government and that ‘I can do as much, if not more, from here than I can do in Westminster.”
