Burnham has been blocked!

Yep agree more or less. I think things are slowly improving after many chaotic years under the tories.

We could do away with the mayoral role and save a fortune.

Good. Not the right time for AB to be on manoeuvres. He’s a great mayor for GM and needs to be committed to the job he has, not eyeing up being Labour leader. Starmer has been great the last few months with Trump. But tired of all the negativity to be honest. Didn’t we have enough leadership shenanigans with the last lot?

There are May elections in my area. Those that have been postponed are because councils have applied for that due to impending boundary changes.

I always thought that as mayor he couldn’t stand ?

What a stupid move by Starmer. Regardless of the merits or otherwise of Andy Burnham this just makes him look both weak and didactic

This is a bad move by Starmer. It’s going to be interesting to see what unfolds.

I agree. This is a distraction . They need to do their jobs no in fight.

I'm glad he has been blocked. We need to break this cycle of chucking out prime ministers. Starmer has been in a year. The country is a mess due to Covid and brexit. No individual can be expected to fix it in this time. It's the government not some reality tv show you can vote contestants our on a whim.

My son is 7 and has had more prime ministers so far than I had in my life before he was born. Labour needs to get behind Starmer and act as one strong unit. They are u turning and divided that's what's going to cause them to crash.

Yep

Labour in the North West isn't such a sad one trick pony that they need to have Burnham stand?
They've been doing great things in Government so it shouldn't be personality led, the brand should lead.

Ok stop laughing at the back.

Excellent! I’m sick of populism and constant changes of leader, it leads to economic instability and makes us look stupid on the world stage. AB would have to deal with the same shit that Keir Starmer is within the same constraints. People need to accept there are no easy answers to the problems we are facing.
There’s a very obvious Russian lead social media campaign to destabilise the UK, vote Brexit, Vote Boris, vote Farage, get Starmer out. Who benefits from the uk being weak and unstable? Certainly not the British people. Have no thoughts on AB but sick of the constant attacks on Keir. He’s not great but he’s not terrible either and is a good deal better than Boris, Truss and Farage.

Rachel Reeves increases in taxes affecting employees = job losses and business closures

This sort of denigration of people with a different viewpoint is unhelpful.

Also, if you could share these metrics showing the ship turning around that would useful for your arguments.

Yep...they chose the wrong Milliband

Sluggish economy, higher unemployment, high tax burden, low wages and high cost of living. You could say they are continuing the legacy of the conservative party or you could say they are making it worse. Neither are glowing endorsements. One of the first things Starmer did when he came into power was talk down the economy. It sounded like he was lining up excuses for inevitable failure. It didn't inspire confidence.

It's surely not a surprise that man who has cancelled elections in order to save his own skin would think twice about blocking a man who might skin him.

It’s far more complex than the NI increases.

The price of gas, food, etc has hit some parts of the market. AI disruption others.

Look at the sectors where employment has fallen - and where it’s risen. It’s very very clear this isn’t driven by NI increases- though it’s a handy fiction for the Tories.

I met AB through work. He is a very very ambitious man out for himself. The Manchester “ success story” is a) not just down to him and b) far from reality for a lot of people in Greater Manchester. People speak of him as if he’s some kind of God and I bet he’s just lapping it up.

That said, I do think Starmer is on his way out after May and he has messed up a huge opportunity for Labour. However, a lot of his Cabinet ministers ( current and former) need to take their share of the blame too.

That's the end of KS, I think. Bad decision.

I actually had some time for AB until I've educated myself a bit more thanks to MN in recent days and realised people in Greater Manchester might not necessarily be as supportive of him as I thought, as well as the fact he unfortunately isn't supportive of women.

Either way, badly played by Labour for sure and it will affect them all negatively.

Unemployment is at its highest since 2021 thats not turning the ship. Businesses have been hit hard by the NI increase.

And frankly, far too many of the electorate seem to have adopted the personalities of particularly suicidal turkeys, with the attention span to match.

We all know why. And Farage’s shady pals are RIGHT up there
in the list of factors.

The only thing turning is the swathes of voters away from Labour. Campaigning against them has been hugely successful so far.

I‘m a HUGE fan of Burnham but I don’t agree with others on the thread. He’s been blocked because he’s doing such a good job.

Its not democratically useful to move him 🤷‍♀️

we tend not to clear seats for popular figures, that’s just who we are as a party.

Sadly it’s impossible to undo well over a decade austerity, incompetence, corruption, cronyism and … Trussenomics… in 18 months.

All of the metrics I’ve see have shown the ship is turning- thank fuck- and if the pace of change is slow, it just goes to show the extent of the damage the Tories left to unpick.