Andy Burnham made commitment to serve full term as mayor, Cabinet minister says

A Cabinet minister has dismissed suggestions Andy Burnham could mount a challenge for the Labour leadership as “tittle-tattle”, despite the Greater Manchester Mayor’s repeated hints that he could be considering a return to Westminster.

Steve Reed also noted Mr Burnham had made a “commitment” to serve his full term as mayor.

Mr Burnham has said MPs are privately urging him to challenge Sir Keir Starmer and that “wholesale change” was required to see off an “existential” threat to the ruling party.

The former New Labour minister and ex-MP for Leigh accused Downing Street of creating a “climate of fear” as he set out his vision for how to “turn the country around”.

But Housing Secretary Mr Reed on Thursday downplayed the criticism of the Prime Minister, saying people had “taken potshots at Keir Starmer before”.

The Prime Minister has had a bruising few weeks in which two high-profile Government departures and sustained lag behind Reform UK in the polls sparked questions about his political future.

Mr Reed insisted Labour members should focus on “how we drive change” during the party’s annual conference next week instead of turning inwards to discuss manoeuvres to replace Sir Keir.

“Change is what people voted for, change is what we’re going to deliver, and I’m not going to be diverted by tittle-tattle in the papers,” the Streatham and Croydon North MP told Times Radio.

“Andy is playing a great role already.

“He’s the mayor of Greater Manchester and he’s doing an incredible job there, if you look at what they’re doing on homelessness or what they’re doing working with local health services.

“He will keep doing that work, because that is the commitment he gave until the end of his term.”

Mr Reed also told the BBC: “I would urge everyone in the Labour Party to spend conference focusing on how we drive change.

“Our job now is to talk to the country, not to ourselves, about how we’re going to change the things that they care about.”

Other Labour figures also urged Mr Burnham to tone down his leadership ambitions after he gave interviews to The New Statesman and The Telegraph ahead of the party’s gathering in Liverpool.

Labour peer Baroness Thangam Debbonaire told Sky News: “I don’t think it’s helpful for anybody to start sticking their oar in about who should or should not replace Keir Starmer. Keir Starmer is our Prime Minister.”

Mr Burnham insisted he was not plotting an immediate return to the Commons or wanting to step on the Government’s toes as it seeks a reset at the conference.

But the senior Labour politician told the New Statesman that the conference starting on Sunday must answer the question “where is our plan to turn the country around?”

“I’m going to put the question back to people at Labour conference: are we up for that wholesale change?

He said returning to “the old way of doing things in Westminster with minimal change” was an unattractive prospect, but that he was ready to “work with anybody who wants to … put in place a plan to turn the country around”.

“I’m happy to play any role. I am ready to play any role in that. Yes. Because the threat we’re facing is increasingly an existential one.”

Mr Burnham detailed his politics of “aspirational socialism”, calling for more public control of housing, energy, water and rail, and to “get back to speaking to working-class ambition”.

He signalled a willingness to work with the Liberal Democrats and Jeremy Corbyn and told The Telegraph he believed Britain should introduce proportional representation to encourage co-operation within the “progressive majority”.

He argued for higher council tax on some homes in southern England and a 50p top rate of income tax, saying there was a “huge underpayment of tax that should now be corrected” in London and the South East because the rates were based on property valuations from 1991.

Asked if MPs had urged him to run for the top job, he said: “People have contacted me throughout the summer, yeah.

“I’m not going to say to you that that hasn’t happened, but as I say, it’s more a decision for those people than it is for me.”

Suggesting he still harbours ambitions for No 10, he said: “I stood twice to be leader of the Labour Party. And I think that tells you, doesn’t it?”