Andy Burnham has said Britain needs “wholesale change” in his biggest challenge yet to Sir Keir Starmer, warning the prime minister that he risks handing Nigel Farage the keys to No 10 without a major change of course.
The Greater Manchester mayor and former cabinet minister approaches this weekend’s crucial Labour conference with supporters talking up his prospects as a leader and potential prime minister for the party.
And his message, in an interview with The New Statesman, comes as Sir Keir continues to falter in the polls, with Labour MPs openly questioning whether he can continue if the party returns another poor set of elections in May.
In a separate interview with The Telegraph, the mayor said his idea for a future Britain would include higher council tax on expensive homes in London and the South East, as well as £40bn of borrowing to build council houses, income tax cuts for lower earners and a 50p rate for the highest-paid.
Suggesting he still harboured the ambition to be prime minister, he told the newspaper: “I stood twice to be leader of the Labour Party. And I think that tells you, doesn’t it?”
And with anger over attempts to cut benefits for the disabled and a push to end the two-child benefit cap, Mr Burnham’s message looks set to resonate at the conference.
In what appeared to be a thinly veiled challenge to the party leadership, he told The New Statesman: “I’m going to put the question back to people at Labour conference: are we up for that wholesale change? Because I think that’s what the country needs.”
He also noted that a reshuffle was not enough, suggesting that “it can’t be just a changing of the guard: you have got to change the whole culture and… are people up for that?”
He warned against opening the door to the prospect of “a government of the like we’ve never seen before in the shape of Reform”, with Mr Farage’s party consistently beating Labour in the polls.
Mr Burnham’s friend and ally Lucy Powell also appears to be on course to win the deputy leadership after she was sacked from the cabinet in Sir Keir’s recent reshuffle.
Ms Powell has become the focal point of the anti-Starmer vote, with education secretary Bridget Phillipson seen as the leadership’s favoured candidate.
Rebels have also made it clear that they are willing to work with Mr Burnham, including former shadow chancellor John McDonnell, who is currently suspended from the parliamentary party for rebelling against the government, to call for an end to the two-child benefit cap.
And Mr Burnham’s words appeared to fire up his supporters, including York Central MP Rachael Maskell, who was recently suspended from the parliamentary party after leading the welfare cuts rebellion.
She told The Independent: “I have long known Andy, and he is someone who really engages and is in step with the community. If you look at his record in government, and of course as mayor of Manchester, you can see the impact that his creative style of leadership has delivered, on really reforming services, bringing economic growth and embracing political and wider diversity.
“Having supported Andy in 2015, I think he would make an outstanding leader for our country.”
However, others warned against simple solutions.
Bassetlaw MP Jo White, chair of the influential Red Wall Caucus group, said: “Anyone who thinks there is a simple solution that just changing the leader to take on the rise of Reform is dangerously deluded.”
She also noted that there are no by-elections planned that would allow for Mr Burnham to make a return to parliament.
MPs are looking for someone who can bring an authentic voice to socialism in taking on Mr Farage and Reform UK, who were eight points ahead of Labour in a YouGov poll this week.
Sir Keir did have a boost on Wednesday when a More in Common poll suggested the gap had closed to 3 points, with Labour up 3 and Reform down.
But new pressures were mounting on his Downing Street operation, with education secretary and deputy leadership candidate Bridget Phillipson claiming she had been the victim of misogynistic briefings. Meanwhile, the Tories were threatening to make new accusations about donations linked to the chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney.
Mr Burnham is set to take part in a major event at the conference on a panel with other rebels, including MPs Clive Lewis, Nadia Whittome, and Ms Maskell, under the title “Winning a Decade of National Renewal”.
The policy issues on welfare are also set to rear their heads again, with one left-wing Labour MP, who may support Mr Burnham, announcing he is prepared to be suspended again if the government does not back down on ending the two-child benefit cap.
Asked about it by Times Radio, Ian Byrne MP said: “Absolutely. Yeah, it’s a pernicious piece of legislation which has caused so much harm, certainly in West Derby, Liverpool and across the country. So, you know, it’s something we should be looking to repeal. And hopefully, the mood music coming from the Labour Party at the moment, certainly the two deputy leaders is matching my aims.”
Isle of Wight West MP Richard Quigley told The Independent that Mr Burnham was right.
He said: “He’s not wrong. After the previous 14 years of running the country into the ground, we need to do things differently. We need to leverage our majority to make a real difference, but also to do it differently.
“We are in danger of just tinkering around the edges, like a new management team, because we seem incapable, or scared of the machinery of Whitehall. We need to undo the bad thinking (not civil servants’ fault) that has crept into Whitehall, due to the Tory mismanagement of the country.
“We are doing some great things, but if you ask anyone in the street to describe our vision, they can’t. We need a vision to unite around, and in that Andy is right. Let’s change the Bank of England remit, let’s have a department solely focused on the cost of living and inflation. Let’s make ending poverty as politically engaging as it needs to be. We can change, but we need to want to.”
