UK lawmaker resigns his seat, clearing a path for leadership challenger Andy Burnham
Before he even entered the race, Andy Burnham was the favourite to unseat Keir Starmer as Britain’s prime minister.
The mayor of Greater Manchester led opinion polls and was the front runner among bookmakers and Polymarket. Late Thursday, the biggest obstacle fell away: Labour MP Josh Simons quit the House of Commons, clearing the way for Burnham to win a seat in Parliament, a requirement for the top job.
Arriving in London this week as Starmer’s government wobbled, Burnham has kept a low profile, meeting the insiders – MPs, union leaders and members of the National Executive Committee – whose support he would need for a successful leadership bid. Yet it was his status as a Westminster outsider that swathes of the party see as making him the most likely to turn back the tide against populist leader Nigel Farage.
“People are struggling and they need the Labour Government to succeed,” Burnham, referred to as “King of the North” by the local media, said in a statement without declaring his intention to take on Starmer. “We owe it to people to come back together as a Labour movement, giving the prime minister and the government the space and stability they need as the by-election takes place.”
Starmer has vowed to fight any challenge, which was kicked off by Wes Streeting, who quit as health secretary but has yet to announce his leadership campaign. It may also include his former deputy, Angela Rayner. “I take responsibility for not walking away, not plunging our country into chaos, as the Tories did, time and again,” he said on Monday. “A Labour government would never be forgiven for inflicting that on our country again.”
For his part, Burnham finding his way in the Westminster bubble after nine years in Manchester was testing political chops that have made him a Labour survivor for more than two decades of shifting winds.
Source: News - South China Morning Post
