Labour Blocks Vote To Force Burnham To Face MPs On First Day As PM

Andy Burnham has been slammed after Labour blocked a vote which could have forced him to face the Commons on his first day as prime minister.

The Makerfield MP is set to be crowned as the Labour leader on Friday having run unchallenged to be Keir Starmer’s replacement.

However, an MP cannot become party leader and prime minister on the same day – meaning Burnham will get the keys to No.10 on Monday, July 20.

MPs were already scheduled to start their six-week summer recess on Thursday, July 16, so the Commons will not be sitting on the new PM’s first day.

There is no constitutional rule calling for a prime minister to appear before MPs immediately after being appointed by the monarch.

The Conservatives wanted to use their pre-arranged opposition day debate on Wednesday to table a motion saying the Commons should delay recess so Burnham can address MPs next Monday as the new prime minister.

But the leader of the Commons, Labour’s Alan Campbell, announced on Tuesday there had been a change in parliamentary business.

Instead, MPs would have a general debate on the ongoing situation in Iran.

The Tories’ shadow leader of the Commons Jesse Norman said the public would conclude Burnham was “running scared of public scrutiny before he can even take office”.

“The government has a majority of more than 150 and it could not trust its MPs to vote the right way on that motion [delaying the recess], and it could not bear the idea of a new prime minister facing any scrutiny before September,” Norman said.

“A prime minister, let me remind us all, who has been chosen by a coronation not a contest, with no known platform, almost no known policies, and no idea of his priorities or indeed his cabinet team.”

Campbell dismissed Norman’s claim, insisting it was important for MPs to have a chance to debate what was happening in Iran.

He claimed he was unaware of the motion the Tories were going to table on Wednesday, insisting he was “telling the absolute truth” at the despatch box.

The Commons leader also accused the Tories of playing games, saying: “People listening to this… will do so with a degree of incredulity that [the Conservative party] was preferring to go down a route of playing some weird political game while the Middle East is on the brink of conflagration.”

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch wrote on X: In an unprecedented move, Labour have scrapped the Conservative vote to force Andy Burnham to come to Parliament to answer questions when he becomes PM on Monday.

“Labour are running scared because they know the honeymoon will be over the minute he has to tell us his plans.”

Burnham has already faced significant backlash for dodging scrutiny on his hurried journey to No.10.

Since winning the Makerfield by-election last month, he has avoided making any statements in the House of Commons and has not held any press conferences.

There is plenty of mystery around what he plans to do as prime minister, especially since he did not have to have any debates with leadership rivals also vying for Starmer’s role.

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