Nigel Farage has warned Andy Burnham that he risks humiliation if he tries to return to the Commons in a ‘leadership by-election’ – because Reform would turn it into an ‘epic battle’.
The Manchester mayor is at the centre of increasing speculation that a local Labour MP could quit to allow Mr Burnham to fight the seat. He could then return to Parliament in time for a leadership contest to succeed Sir Keir Starmer if the Peter Mandelson scandal proves to be the final straw for despairing Labour MPs.
But with Reform polling in second or first place in local seats, Mr Farage told The Mail on Sunday: ‘It would be an epic battle that could leave Burnham humiliated. We would give it everything that we have.’
His remarks come after reports that Mr Burnham was laying the groundwork for a leadership bid. The mayor has launched a campaign group calling on Downing Street to introduce wealth taxes, the nationalisation of utility companies and an end to the two-child benefit cap.
Mr Burnham is also backing Lucy Powell in the deputy leadership race. Labour MPs say that if she beats Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the Starmerite candidate, then Mr Burnham would already have ‘one foot in Downing Street’.
