Andy Burnham has once again failed to rule out a Labour leadership bid after a Southern MP said he would vacate his seat so the Greater Manchester mayor can return to Westminster.
As one of the more popular members of the current Labour Party, which to be fair is a low bar, Manchester mayor Burnham has frequently been at the centre of speculation about a move against sitting PM Keir Starmer since Labour’s autumn conference, but he could only do so if he was an MP.
On Wednesday, Norwich South MP Clive Lewis told the BBC he was willing to step down to potentially make way for Burnham to return to the Commons via a by-election, saying it was time to put “country before party, party before personal ambition.”
Burnham was quizzed on the MP’s offer on BBC Radio Manchester, but would only say he is “fully focused” on his current role as mayor.
On BBC Breakfast, presenter Naga Munchetty tried to pin Burnham down on whether he would see out his full term as mayor, running until 2028.
“I don’t know what the world holds but I’m focused on my job here in Greater Manchester,” he responded.
Pushed further, he said “I haven’t launched any leadership challenge,” adding “I’m not going to sit here this morning and rule out what might or might not happen in future – I don’t know what the future will hold.”
Burnham criticised journalists for speculating, saying he is “constantly answering hypothetical questions” and added MPs in Westminster were “constantly speculating and not putting forward solutions.”
Two Manchester MPs, Andrew Gwynne and Graham Stringer, previously ruled out stepping down from their seats so Burnham could run.
On Wednesday, however, Lewis told BBC’s Politics Live that stepping aside for Burnham was “a question I’ve asked myself,” adding that the answer would have to be “yes”.
The MP, who has represented Norwich South for 10 years, later told The Sun, external he had “no plans to stand down” and had been answering a “hypothetical question.”
In his regular Thursday “hot seat” session on BBC Radio Manchester, presenter Mike Sweeney asked: “You could put this to bed now, you could say ‘I have no intention whatsoever of returning to parliament’ and that isn’t a statement that you’ve made?”
Burnham replied: “The statement I can make is that I can’t make a challenge as it stands because I’m not a member of parliament.”
Asked what could happen if an MP stood aside, he added: “I’m also going to say I don’t know what the future holds… You just don’t know do you? No-one goes into an office and speculates about their own future in front of everybody.”
Before becoming Manchester mayor in 2017, Burnham served as a cabinet and shadow cabinet minister under successive Labour leaders and made two unsuccessful Labour leadership bids.
