Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Greater Manchester Mayor, who has said MPs have urged him to run for the leadership, was not doing the country ‘any favours’
Andy Burnham has been told by an ex-Labour Cabinet minister to go and find a television camera and rule out challenging Keir Starmer for the leadership.
Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the Greater Manchester Mayor, who has said MPs have urged him to run for the leadership, was not doing the country “any favours”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg at Labour’s conference in Liverpool, the former Home Secretary Mr Johnson said: “When we were here in 2009 colleagues were coming to me to tell me I should stand against Gordon Brown.” He added: “Here’s a simple bit of advice for Andy: do what I did, go and find a television camera, stand in front of it and say ‘I have no intention of standing against the elected leader of our party’.”
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Mr Johnson went on: “I think actually for his own good. He’s a very talented politician, Andy, and he’s made a great job of Manchester. This is not doing him any favours, certainly not doing the Labour Party any favours, and I think certainly not doing the country any favours.”
In recent days Mr Burnham – nicknamed King of the North – has been setting out his own vision for the country and warning of the need for “wholesale change”. He insisted he is not plotting an immediate return to Parliament but caused alarm in Downing Street with a series of interviews.
When asked by The Telegraph last week whether anyone had encouraged him to run, the former Health Secretary said: “People have contacted me throughout the summer – yeah.
“I’m not going to say to you that that hasn’t happened, but as I say, it’s more a decision for those people than it is for me.”
Appearing on the BBC on Sunday, Mr Stamer urged his critics to give him “space” to make good on the promises he made at last year’s general election. He said: “I will be judged at the next election on three things, I think, more than anything else. One, have we improved living standards? Do people genuinely feel better off?
“Two, have we improved public services? Is the NHS in a better place and people can feel it? And three, do people feel safe and secure in their home, in their neighbourhood, and that their country is secure?”
Mr Starmer, who said he had a “five-year mandate” after last year’s election victory, added: “I’ll be judged at the end of that five years, and quite right too.
“But I just need the space to get on and do what we need to do, to do those three things above all else, but also, in a world which is more volatile than any of us have known for a very long time, to ensure that the United Kingdom is safe and secure.”
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