Burnham told those gathered that he was not motivated by personal ambition but rather the concerns of councillors and party members.
The Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has denied any leadership ambition, telling a fringe event at Labour Party conference that all he has done is ‘launch a debate’.
Speaking at a Guardian Live event in Liverpool, Burnham said: “The only thing I’ve launched is a debate to come up with a plan to beat Reform, May 2026 is in front of us now’.
Burnham has faced criticism in some quarters, after openly criticising the direction of the party and party management under Keir Starmer. Amid the growing threat from Reform, Burnham has called for a change in direction.
However, allies of the Prime Minister have hit back, asking where Burnham was during the Corbyn years and why he didn’t make a fuss then about the direction of the party, and only now when the party has a large majority in government.
Burnham told those gathered that he was not motivated by personal ambition but rather the concerns of councillors and party members.
‘Mine is a calling for more to take to the doorstep… the populist right are putting things on the table and we have to do same, we have to put big ideas on the table’.
Burnham said that progressive are facing a seismic challenge and called for bold and radical policies such as a mass expansion of building council housing, as well as the scrapping of the two-child limit.
He also said that those on the left needed to start calling out the Brexit disaster more directly and hoped that during his lifetime Britain would re-join the EU.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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