To want Andy Burnham to challenge for the Labour leadership

[Spiritofeden87]

I’m a big fan of Andy Burnham- I think he’s clear, principled, has done some good stuff in Manchester and would be great as Labour leader. I saw him speak a while ago at a festival and he was great- said it took being mayor of greater Manchester to understand fully what he believes in. Which is nationalised train travel, council houses, abolishing the 2 child cap, etc.

Am sure all the Farage nuts will be along in a short while to tell me immigrants are eating swans (!) but I think Andy is just what Labour need to unify and get back to some proper social justice values rather than chasing down the far right.

Starmer is truly truly terrible and his position is untenable.

It’s easy to be flavour of the month when you’re not actually doing the job people (and AB himself) are bigging him up for. Similar with Farrage and Reform.

Labour could do well to learn from the Tories that changing leadership when times get tough doesn’t actually improve your standing with the electorate.

It just makes you look shambolic.

Labour need to rally around the PM and shore up their support by addressing the cost of living, migration and the ever expanding welfare costs.

Exactly. I think they all need to grow up, nothing was going to be fixed in a year. They all just look self absorbed, we'll get the chance for our say at the next General Election.

I'm an Andy Burnham fan but am losing some respect for him over this, he's starting to look like an ego maniac.

Nah. Starmer is in a race to the bottom with the far right. It’s shameful.

If Labour are going to survive as a party or even if the government will survive, they need a different leader.

Like I said - I have no skin in the game apart from wanting a socially progressive party in power. The current Labour iteration are anything but that.

Also if people want a better education system, a better NHS that’s not privatised etc- then they’ll need to pay more tax.

Some of the scandanavian countries consistently noted for having the best living standards pay more tax.

Its a choice really isn’t it about what kind of society we want.

Apologies, I'd assumed you were thinking it's a safe seat because it's been Hoyle's since 1997. There's a lot of affection for him personally, but not a huge amount for Labour.

I’ve been seriously unimpressed with Starmer, but he’s got 4 years to go to get it right. I’d much rather he ditched Reeves and got someone better in the chancellorship. Long long ago I liked Burnham but there’s a reason he lost the 2 previous leadership elections, coming 4th when Ed Miliband won. He’s like Starmer in that he blows with the wind, says anything to get elected, but has much better communication skills. He’s been really good as Mayor and really should stay there. His plans for spending bear no relation to financial reality and his quote I saw somewhere over why do we have to take notice of the bond markets is really scary! I don’t know who will take over before the next election, I’m sure Starmer won’t go into it as leader, but I’ve no idea who will take over or when. I’d favour Streeting (although he has shades of the old Burnham’s say anything if it’s popular), or Shabana Mahmood. She seems to be someone who knows what she’s doing.
I agree Labour desperately needs to get going on proper policy. But I don’t see any one person I have any faith in. Pat McFadden is another I think knows what he’s doing but isn’t a leader.

This would be a disaster and I bet the NEC wouldn’t let him stand.

Partly because Starmer allies control the NEC, so why would they?
But also because there’s a chance he’d lose (which would be embarrassing), and they’d have to have a by election for the GM mayor as well. Which they might lose. I think they’d be more likely to lose these in this situation than at a normal by election or general election, because I think people would be a bit fucked off to be having the election just because of some party in-fighting. “I know you all voted Labour last year, but please do so again so that we can have a pointless and disruptive leadership election rather than doing any government work”. You’d lose a significant amount of Labour voters vs last year’s election, and the other parties would be all over it.

No, this is a silly idea.

Well this is the alternative.

“They’re eating the swans”

Fucking batshit.

https://news.sky.com/story/royal-parks-responds-to-farages-claim-that-swans-are-being-eaten-by-eastern-europeans-in-the-uk-13437205

I’m a Labour supporter. I think he’s behaving really grubbily. He’s stood as Labour leader twice before & he was a very average yes man Cabinet minister. It’s a no from me.

I’m with you

I so hope he will. Please Andy do it so I can vote for labour again.

Andy Burnham. If ‘all fur coat and no knickers’ had a face.

By the this is the guy that stitched up the public with PFI deals in the NHS. Crippling the NHS for decades. An absolute moron and liar.

King of the north with his clean air zone vanity project can just fuck off !

Clean air zone. How very imaginative. Is this what passes for calibre for running the country now?

To be fair, MPs in parliament are all of a low calibre anyway. Thick as mince and most have never had real jobs.

Would be hilarious to see a Labour MP stand aside and let this idiot fight for a seat and lose to Reform. You’d pay for a front row seats to watch that.

It doesn't bode well that the Labour have to go outside Westminster to find a new leader.

No! Why don’t they get on with doing their blinking jobs like the rest of us. I’m completely fed up of all this talk about the next election, Labour leadership crisis, the GE was five minutes ago! Yes the government is doing a terrible job, but messing about trying to parachute people into roles is disrespectful to virtually everyone, and a massive waste of time.

What a great idea!

Even if Burnham did manage to get selected to fight a by-election, beat Reform at a time when they are miles ahead of Labour in the polls, gather enough support in Parliament and the party to challenge Starmer for the leadership & beat him he would still be faced with exactly the same problems & Britain would still be a mess.

A chronically flatlining economy.
Awful public finances.
A failing NHS which is simultaneously a bottom less money pit and unfit for purpose.
Widespread public anger about uncontrolled mass immigration, both legal & illegal.
A bloated benefits system which is completely out of control & bankrupting the country, and a party which is incapable of making tough decisions to tackle it.
Multiple international crises which are dictating massive increases in defence spending which the country can’t afford.
A housing crisis which is preventing young people buying their own home & accumulating assets etc etc.

It’s been scrapped hasn’t it?

It has been scrapped @CameForAVacationStayedForTheRevolutionbut not before he spent unnecessary money on signs and cameras… a complete vanity project

He is a chancer. What seat is safe from Reform?

You might have an MP who could stand down due to ill health but say it wasn’t safe and Reform got it - Farage would throw everything at winning that seat and hand on heart he could win. Then Labour could look even more stupid than they currently do.

Over £300 million spent on the Clean Air Zone, even though Manchester residents had already voted against it.

@HermioneWeasley as OP is a Green Party member, they obviously won't care that AB doesn't know what a woman is.