Labour MPs are reportedly urging colleagues to demand Burnham’s return in order to position him as Starmer’s eventual successor
If Keir Starmer is looking for a saviour to keep him in No 10 after the May elections and the scandal of the Mandelson saga, there is an unlikely figure in the north-west who might help him – temporarily.
It has been the week where the prime minister seemed at his most isolated. But Labour MPs told the Guardian they were urging colleagues not to depose Starmer next month, and were instead preparing to demand that Andy Burnham return to parliament in order to succeed him before the next general election.
Burnham had a busy day on Thursday, in the week that Starmer was at war with Whitehall over the failed vetting of Peter Mandelson. The mayor of Greater Manchester was campaigning in the local elections in five London boroughs – Haringey, Islington, Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley.
Having once been viewed suspiciously by some in the 2024 intake as aloof and dismissive of those who had won seats in the south, Burnham has been making efforts to build bridges.
