Greater Manchester mayor says he’s not interested in returning to Parliament, but would clamour for him to stand change his mind
Labour MP Rosie Cooper has announced that she is standing down as an MP to take a job as chair of a local NHS trust:
The resignation is apparently with immediate effect, as Cooper says her ‘time in West Lancashire has come to an end’, though she does not specifically say it, triggering a by-election.
The seat is considered a safe one, with Labour taking over fifty percent of the vote in both of the last general elections. Its proximity both to Manchester and to Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s old parliamentary seat of Leigh has rapidly led to speculation that – and calls for him to do it – that Burnham may stand for selection to stand in the by-election, a pre-requisite for the leadership bid many have hoped he might make.
Burnham has quickly said that he is not interested in bid. However, if the murmurs become a clamour, who knows?
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Mr Gormless will fit right in with his Tory mates
She’s stepping down to pursue, a directorship of an NHS trust. WTF, I ask again, how do these people get past the initial membership interview never mind the immediate grasp of the pole?
Burham isn’t stupid and he rather be his own boss as Major of Manchester that be controlled by Labour’s bureaucrats in Southside.
Burham will need reassurances that he will be able to chose who would be the Party’s General Secretary and it wouldn’t be David Evans.
Don’t see why not? He’s always been the first choice of the extreme right of Labour. Same sort of hollow man as Starmer, but manages to sound a bit more authentic.\\\\\\
Just another do nothing centrist.
I agree with you Darren Barratt .Burnham is a bit more dangerous than others because as you say he manages to sound authentic. He also comes across as a nice guy when he is nothing of the sort – he is an unpleasant careerist with his eye always on the main chance. He fits into Starmer’s Labour very well and in my opinion he still has leadership ambitions – Starmer would need to watch his back .
Also when I read the headline I was delighted – I thought that at last we were getting rid of the awful Yvette- so very disappointed she’s not resigning – too much to hope for I suppose.
He’s become outspoken in support of proportional representation for Westminster, and wants to abolish the HoL.
For that reason, would the PLP troughers want him as leader? Doubtful imo.
Out of the fire back into the frying pan.
Out of the manger, back into the trough…
I think that Burnham is not that stupid to take the poison chalice of the PLP and walk away from a cushy number in his home county Lancashire…..or some might say Gt Manchester.
…IT will take more than a reformed blairight to put the labour party together again.
First and foremost, Andy Burnham will do whatever suits his own best interests. Is he spotting the absence of a ‘celebrity’ name (like Noddy) that is ‘trusted’ by the soft left and SCG types (“poisonous trots and marxists” as Tom Watson called them) to take over as Party leader once the knighted leader from Davos does his stuff and causes Labour not to be the next party of government?
Maybe not Rosie Cooper’s seat, maybe not today, but the idea is in Noddy Burnham’s mind somewhere.
The only thing that is making The UK Labour Party and Movement appear lifelike, is the wriggling and squirming, of the Neo-Labour Party TORIES within!
Even if you Koooh, Koooh…Jesus riding a white pigeon down from the heavens above, he’d take one look at the wriggling dead thing, that once was The UK Labour Party & Movement, spit on it and declare it dead!
A dead UK Labour Party and Movement and a handful of well intentioned, once Working-Class Socialists now Middle-Class Careerist Do-Gooders, is no bad thing. It will only speed things up for a new movement of The PEOPLE! And yank the the Careerist Do-Gooders back down to earth where they will learn from their mistakes.
To pin false hopes on another false Prophet is just rediculous, anycase this has nothing to do with the PLP, CLP, members, etc, the question is what has Burnham done for the Commissioners, the Establishment, the Elites, that can be even remotely comparable to that what BlueKeef has!? I guess one could start with a picture of a Saville aftermath, imagine, just imagine if he went down! It would have made Epstein’s little black book look like a Looney Tunes Comic!
I can’t see Burnham standing in Rosie’s seat. I know he’s not the most rebellious of past MPs but I’m not sure he’d be able to put up with the diktats coming from Mandelson and others. Plus Starmer may consider him a threat to his leadership.
Anyway it’s all a mess. Who’d want to put themselves forward as a candidate for a party that has no credibility.
ellman hasn’t got a seat 😙🎶
” if the murmurs become a clamour, who knows?” – Remember the clamour for Lavery to stand as leader? Don’t hold your breath on this one.
Deckchair arranging.
My guess would be that Burnham will stay put.
Besides, the factory that produces those plastic clones that the LP churns out, is working to full capacity I hear.
hehe, but the very well-funded WEF Future Leaders programme has loads of spare capacity, and a stockyard full of manufactured leaders waiting for assignment.
No way would he be any better than Starmer.
One plus is he seems to be rock solid on proportional representation. Doubt he’d be quite so overtly anti-left as Starmer is. The purge would likely end and he’d probably aim for a more balanced between left & right shadow cabinet. His PR support would put him at odds with the PLP, so for the party leadership role he might not be the shoo-in he imagines.
The fact many members are now desperate for policy timid Burnham, a Blairite, who was comprehensively beaten by Corbyn, speaks to how bad things are. A horrible situation.