A Labour NEC member has said the rules governing leadership contests should not be changed to let Andy Burnham run, as backers of the Greater Manchester mayor press for an extended timetable that would give him time to return to parliament. The warning came as the party’s internal debate over its next leader sharpened on Thursday.
Luke Akehurst said that if a contest started immediately, he could not see how Burnham could take part in it. “If a contest started right now, I just don’t see how it’s physically possible for Andy Burnham to participate,” he said. He added: “I don’t think the Labour party’s rules and procedures are there to be tweaked, to suit one particular person.”
The argument matters because Burnham’s supporters are understood to be lobbying Labour’s ruling body for an extended leadership election, with a nomination period long enough for him to win a by-election and return to the Commons before any formal challenge. Labour’s NEC can vary the rules of a leadership contest with its consent, but the question now is whether the party is willing to bend its process for a figure seen by some allies as a possible alternative to a straight-through succession.
The party has already shown its hand once. In January, the NEC blocked Burnham’s return to parliament by rejecting his request to seek selection for the Gorton and Denton byelection, a move intended to stave off a potential leadership challenge. That decision left Burnham outside Westminster and, for now, outside the formal route to the top job. Under party rules, prime ministers need to be MPs or members of the House of Lords, a situation last seen in 1963.
Angela Rayner added to the pressure on Thursday when she said Burnham should not have been prevented from re-entering parliament. “If somebody wants to come and help, and be part of the future that we can deliver, then absolutely we shouldn’t be blocking people … We cannot afford to be factional about this. We cannot afford to have egos,” she said. But when asked about any behind-the-scenes manoeuvring, she drew a line: “I’m not doing deals.”
Abdi Duale said Labour officials were backing away from blocking Burnham’s return. He argued that the leader’s influence over the NEC still mattered, but less than before. “Of course, the leader has influence over how the NEC votes. But I do think that influence is diminished by looking at the results and thinking, well, you know, the prime minister is probably not going to take us into the next election. So I imagine colleagues will be weighing that up, because I think old loyalties that existed before 7 May are all being reassessed,” he said.
The background to the dispute is a fear among Burnham allies that a short contest could amount to a coronation for Wes Streeting. That is why the timetable matters so much to his supporters: without time to get him back into parliament, their candidate cannot enter the race at all. For now, the line from party rule-makers is clear: the process exists to choose a leader, not to be rewritten around one name.
