Labour row erupts after Andy Burnham blocked from byelection race

[muriel_volestrangler]

Perhaps this acts as light relief from the news from Minnesota.

Allies of Greater Manchester mayor say No 10 has ‘chosen factionalism’ as decision leads to a furious backlash

Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) has blocked Andy Burnham’s request to seek selection for the Gorton and Denton byelection, setting off an immediate and furious row within the party.

In a vote of the 10-strong “officers’ group” of the NEC, only one person, Lucy Powell, the party deputy leader and a close ally of Burnham, voted to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to compete to be a candidate in the seat vacated by Andrew Gwynne this week.

The other eight members, which included the prime minister Keir Starmer, voted against the move, with the NEC chair, the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, abstaining.

The decision would appear to completely stop Burnham’s attempts to return to parliament in the short term, where he would be seen as a major rival to succeed Starmer in the event of a challenge against the prime minister, whose personal poll ratings are disastrous.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/25/andy-burnham-blocked-from-byelection-race-by-labour-ruling-committee

The problem is that an insecure leader is acting to prevent a possible successor from getting to a position where they could be a viable alternative. That works for the leader, but not for the better governance of the country.

It also means that any politician with eventual ambition to be PM will not stand for mayor of anywhere - it means they'll get blocked from coming back to parliament. So the quality of mayors is going to be lower, despite Labour trying to give them more power (see: abolition of many county councils in favour of a mayor for the county area).

[Celerity]

1. feckless Starmer and his aspirational Blairite redux crew doing their level best to make sure we get a PM Farage, ffs