Politics Home | Andy Burnham Says Labour’s By-Election Defeat Shows “Chasm” Between Westminster And Voters

(Alamy)

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In his first public intervention since Labour lost the Greater Manchester contest to the Greens last week, Burnham said the result ought to be a “code red for Westminster politics”.

Labour had controlled the constituency for over 100 years before falling to third place behind the Greens and Reform UK last week. 

Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, wanted to be Labour’s candidate and was widely seen as the party’s most likely chance of keeping hold of the seat, but was blocked by senior Labour officials, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

As well as being a bruising result for Labour, it was another blow to Westminster’s historic, two-party system, with neither of the top two parties being Labour or the Conservatives.

Speaking at an event in London hosted by the Centre for Cities think tank on Wednesday, Burnham said: “What I want to say today is that the time has most definitely come for a serious conversation about our political system and its pervading culture, particularly so in the aftermath of the Gorton and Denton by-election.

“It revealed the full depth of the chasm between people and Westminster politics. I don’t think anybody can seriously dispute that statement.”

The Labour defeat has triggered a debate within the party about what direction the party should go in to rebuild its public support. 

Many Labour MPs believe their campaign strategy was misguided, focusing too much on attacking Zack Polanski’s Greens instead of setting out a positive case for what the Starmer government had achieved in office.

Burnham warned that the country was falling into an “extremely dangerous” place and argued Westminster needed fundamental change. He cited recent research by the think tank More in Common, which found almost three in five voters believe the cost of living crisis will never end.

The Greater Manchester Mayor criticised Whitehall for failing devolve further powers to the UK regions and said it looks like the centre of government doesn’t “actually want growth” outside of London.

“I’m getting to the point where I just refuse to spend any more of my working week making the case to Whitehall for more devolved powers, because I spend way too much of my time doing that.

“Why aren’t they just looking at the evidence, getting behind us, and getting on with it? It just makes you think they don’t actually want growth everywhere.

“They actually care more about holding on to something down here in their silos than actually getting the whole of the country growing. So, we need Whitehall reform, most definitely. But we also need Westminster reform if we are to bring Manchesterism to life everywhere.”

Burnham renewed his call for major constitutional reform, including a proportional voting system and replacing the House of Lords with an elected senate of regions and nations.