Andy Burnham renewed his threat to Sir Keir Starmer as he launched a fresh wave of attacks against the Labour leadership, accusing it of presiding over a “climate of fear” just hours after the Prime Minister pleaded for unity in the party.
In a further ratcheting up of his threats to the Starmer, the Greater Manchester Mayor once again questioned the direction of the party as he warned of the looming threat posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK at the Welsh and local elections next year.
It comes after The i Paper revealed in the last week that Burnham and his inner circle have identified the set of national elections in Scotland and Wales, as well as the local council polls, as the point when “Keir will be at his weakest and it will be time to go for it [the leadership]”.
Burnham sparked a bitter backlash from Labour MPs last week after he gave a string of interviews criticising the decisions made by Starmer’s government, and admitted he was privately being urged by backbenchers to launch a leadership challenge.
But a defiant Burnham said he would not back down when it came to pushing for a “debate” on the party’s trajectory, insisting that he was doing it in support of the Government.
“One of the things I think we do need to have a debate about is – how do we have a policy agenda that connects more, that tells a story more when people are on those doorsteps,” he told a fringe event, ostensibly on the issue of proportional representation at the party’s conference in Liverpool.
And he added: “One thing I am worried about, and we do need a debate at this conference, and my view is: how can you have an open debate about all of those things if there’s too much of a climate of fear within our party and the way the party is being run?”
He went on to attack the decision to strip the whip from Labour MPs for voting against the Government on benefits reform, and he threw his weight behind Lucy Powell’s deputy leadership campaign and praised her decision to oppose the two child benefit cap.
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His comments prompted a bitter response from loyal MPs, who were sitting in the room, with one telling The i Paper: “I didn’t realise I’d walked into a leadership hustings for a non-existent vacancy.
“It was extraordinary. I think he needs to lie down.”
Another Labour MP reacted to Burnham’s attacks, saying: “What Andy is doing is not helping. I don’t know who he has been speaking to who has been urging him to stand, because I don’t know anyone who thinks it is a good idea.”
The attack came just hours after Starmer had urged his party to unite, warning against the party faithful entering a period of “introspection and navel gazing”.
Speaking to the BBC earlier on Sunday, the Prime Minister acknowledged growing public frustration over the pace of change and insisted he would be “judged at the next election”, but he called on Labour to end the infighting that has erupted in the last few weeks.
“Now is not the time for introspection or navel-gazing,” Starmer insisted.
“There is a fight that we are all in together and every single member of our party and our movement, actually everyone who cares about what this country is, whether they vote Labour or otherwise, it’s the fight of our lives for who we are as a country. We need to be in that fight united, not navel-gazing.”
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