Politics Home | Andy Burnham Will Be Labour Leader “In The Not Too Distant Future”, Predicts Karl Turner MP

Keir Starrmer appeared alomgside Andy Burnham in a rare show of unity at a campaign event this week (Alamy)

4 min read52 min

Karl Turner, the MP for Kingston upon Hull East, said the Greater Manchester mayor is “authentic” and “what the punters need”, adding that people in his Yorkshire constituency and nationwide “don’t think Keir Starmer believes in anything”.

Turner was speaking to The Rundown podcast from PoliticsHome on Thursday, before new revelations about Lord Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to the US put further pressure on Starmer’s position. The Guardian reported that Mandelson was given the senior diplomatic job despite failing his security vetting. Starmer has blamed Foreign Office officials for not making him aware of the vetting failure, and last night sacked Olly Robbins as the department’s permanent secretary.

Labour suspended the whip from Turner last month after weeks of public criticism of the Starmer operation and government policy, particularly the plan to reduce the use of jury trials.

The MP insisted that he would not be actively pushing for Starmer to quit. “If I get the whip back, I’m not going to be nominating anybody else either, because I was a supporter of Keir and remain a supporter of Keir,” he told PoliticsHome.

However, he said that the voters he speaks to “cannot stand” the Prime Minister, and that the Parliamentary Labour Party may conclude that he has to go, particularly if the results of next month’s elections in Scotland, Wales and English councils are as bad as feared.

“Regrettably, I think we’re now beyond the point of no return in terms of Keir’s leadership,” he said.

“The Labour Party has got to look at itself and find out what we do to mend things. And if it’s not mendable, we have to consider a change of leadership.”

“You’re looking at the polling, and you can see that your P45 is on its way to you already, it tends to concentrate the mind of the individual MP,” Turner continued.

“And that’s when they’ll be going to Keir Starmer and saying, ‘look, mate, the game is up, we are all heading for disaster if we continue with you as the leader of the Labour Party.’

“I think that’s the stuff that’s going to change the situation for Andy Burnham.”

Burnham, a former Labour cabinet minister, is seen as a leading candidate to succeed Starmer, despite not currently being a Labour MP. The House magazine reported last week that his operation had started reaching out to Labour MPs, senior officials and trade unions about a second attempt to return to the House of Commons after his bid to stand as the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year was blocked.

Green candidate Hannah Spencer won the by-election in Greater Manchester, with Labour finishing third in a seat that it had previously controlled for over a century.

Turner said that the decision to block his candidacy the first time around was a big mistake.

“I was begging Keir, on the phone to him, texting him and having conversations with him, saying, ‘do not block Burnham’,” he told PoliticsHome.

“We should be going on our bended knee to Burnham, saying, ‘Will you be the candidate for that by-election, because you’re the guy who might win it’.”

The backbench MP also joked that “people buy with their eyes”, and that the Manchester mayor was “charismatic,” “charming”, and “actually quite a good looking fella” with nice eyelashes.

“I often question my wife because my wonderful little daughter has got the most beautiful eyelashes, and I’m convinced that Burnham might have had something to do with it!” he told The Rundown.

“Although my wife and Andy Burnham have only met once or twice, and not for very long. Thank goodness!”

The Rundown is presented by Alain Tolhurst, and is produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

• Click here to listen to the latest episode of The Rundown, or search for ‘PoliticsHome’ wherever you get your podcasts.