Andy Burnham Plans To Make MP Comeback In Labour Race

Andy Burnham has revealed the Commons constituency he wants to stand in so he can become an MP again and challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership.

Labour MP Josh Simons has agreed to stand down from his Makerfield seat to make way for the Greater Manchester mayor less than two years after being elected.

In a statement, Simons said: “I am putting the people I represent and the country I love first and will be resigning as MP for Makerfield. I am standing aside so that Andy Burnham can return to his home, fight to re-enter parliament, and if elected, drive the change our country is crying out for.

“This has not been an easy decision. This is my family’s home, where only a few weeks ago, doctors and nurses at Wigan Infirmary saved our newborn son’s life.

“But we all must make choices and in recent days I found myself with a difficult one: defend the status quo or step forward and act. I have made my choice.

“I am in politics because politics is how you change lives for the better. My party has one last chance to do that: deliver for the people and places I represent, drive economic growth, secure our borders, reform our state and politics, and change a status quo that is not working.

“That is the fight. I believe Andy is the one to lead it.”

Simons won the seat with a majority of 5,399 over Reform at the general election.

In a statement, Burnham – who was MP for Leigh between 2001 and 2017 – said: “Over the last decade, I have been challenging this failure from the outside and building a new and better way of doing politics.

“We have built Greater Manchester into the fastest-growing city-region in the UK and put buses back under public control, introducing a £2 fare cap to help people with cost-of-living pressures.

“However, there is only so much that can be done from Greater Manchester. Much bigger change is needed at a national level if everyday life is to be made more affordable again.

“This is why I now seek people’s support to return to parliament: to bring the change we have brought to Greater Manchester to the whole of the UK and make politics work properly for people.

“Millions are struggling and they need the Labour government to succeed. It has already made changes to make life better for them in its first two years.

“After this week, we owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the prime minister and the government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.”

Reform leader Nigel Farage said his party “will absolutely throw everything at” the by-election campaign.

Before he became an MP, Simons used to run Labour Together, the moderate think-tank which helped Starmer become party leader in 2020.

He was forced to resign as a Cabinet Office minister in February over his part in a Labour Together smear operation against journalists.

Despite being a former ally of the PM, he said in the wake of Labour’s drubbing in last week’s elections that Starmer had “lost the country” and needed to go.

The dramatic development comes after Burnham’s leadership rival Wes Streeting resigned as health secretary with a ferocious attack on Starmer on Thursday afternoon.

He said it was clear that the prime would not lead Labour into the next general election on the back of the party’s drubbing in England, Scotland and Wales last week.

Streeting said: “Where we need vision, we have a vacuum. Where we need direction, we have drift.”

Burnham stood down as an MP in 2017, and needs to find a way back to Westminster in order to challenge for the Labour leadership.

He tried to stand as Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, but was blocked by the party’s ruling national executive committee (NEC).

However, the NEC will be under intense pressure to let him stand again in the hope that he can win the seat and return to Westminster, which he quit in 2017.

Communities secretary and Starmer loyalist Steve Reed says: “I’m sorry Josh has taken this decision.

“If anyone thinks there is a caped superhero that is coming our way with all the answers they have another thing coming.”

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Subscribe to Commons People, the podcast that makes politics easy. Every week, Kevin Schofield and Kate Nicholson unpack the week’s biggest stories to keep you informed. Join us for straightforward analysis of what’s going on at Westminster.