‘I am speaking out for the thousands of councillors who are at this conference who are worried about going to the doorsteps next May.’
The Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has warned against “underestimating the peril the party is in” at a fringe meeting at the Labour party conference.
It comes as Burnham continues to criticise the leadership, warning about the direction of the Labour Party, amid a rising threat from Reform UK.
Speaking at a rally for electoral reform, Burnham said: “To those today making calls for simplistic statements of loyalty, I say, if that closes down the debate we need, I think it’s at risk of underestimating the peril the party is in as we get to the polls next may.
“I’ve been accused of all things over the last week as you can probably see, I’ve done nothing more than launch a debate, and what I would say to those who say I’m speaking out purely for my own ambition, I can say to you all tonight, I am speaking out for the thousands of councillors who are at this conference who are worried about going to the doorsteps next May.”
At another conference event, Heath Secretary Wes Streeting said Labour “would have avoided some of the mistakes of the past year if we’d listened to our MPs”.
“We’ve got to have the humility to listen,” Streeting said.
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.
Alan Johnson, a former Home Secretary, told Mr Burnham that he was not doing the country ‘any favours’, and asked the Mayor of Greater Manchester to rule out challenging Starmer for the leadership.
Johnson recalled on BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme how he was told by colleagues to run against Gordon Brown as prime minister, and offered “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 country’,” he said.
Basit Mahmood is editor of Left Foot Forward
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