BBC Breakfast fans who tuned into today’s programme were left fuming after a report involving comments from the Mayor of Greater Manchester about Sir Keir Starmer. Andy Burnham has said Labour MPs have “privately called on him” to challenge Sir Keir Starmer to become Prime Minister. In the Daily Telegraph, he said he was not “plotting to get back” to Westminster and that Number 10 had created a “climate of fear” among some MPs. Andy remarked: “People have contacted me throughout the summer […] 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.” The Manchester mayor is currently not an MP.
One person who watched the report fumed on X: “We need a general election.” Another viewed moaned: “You’ve asked two labour politicians about this on Breakfast this morning and failed to make them answer the question posed, why bother if you’re not going to hold these public people to account…..!”
A third person also said: “He can’t be worse!!” referring to Keir Starmer who has been in power for over a year as Prime Minister. A different viewer then argued: “It was always a plan to bring Andy back in, don’t forget he was a part of Tony Blair 2005 reign.”
Andy Burnham’s latest interview comes ahead of Labour’s autumn conference. Sir Keir Starmer is also facing pressure following the resignation of Angela Rayner and his sacking of Lord Peter Mandelson.
Lord Mandelson was eventually sacked as the UK’s ambassador to the US following details emerging of his friendship with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Andy’s comments come just a day after his interview with the New Statesman, where he slammed Keir Starmer’s approach and remarked that there needed to be “wholesale change” to see off an “existential” threat to the Labour Government.
In the New Statesman, Burnham commented: “I’m happy to play any role. I am ready to play any role in that. Yes. Because the threat we’re facing is increasingly an existential one.”
Meanwhile, the editor of the independent news website LabourList said Burnham has a “strong record of delivery” in Greater Manchester.
