ANDY BURNHAM has been given permission to put himself forward for selection as the Labour candidate in the Makerfield by-election. The permission was granted by Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
The NEC is a tough nut to crack – preferring to chose its own candidates rather than allow grassroots members to select who will stand in public elections. Back in 2010, the NEC removed Lutfur Rahman as Labour candidate for Mayor, in the first public ballot for that post. Rahman had won a local members’ ballot to be the candidate, and after the NEC chucked him out, Rahman went on to stand as an independent candidate and wiped the floor with Labour’s official candidate – so horrified were the voters by the NEC trampling on local members.
The NEC did not learn from their error, and they have been fiddling with local selections ever since. When Andy Burnham said he wanted to be Labour’s candidate for the recent Gorton & Denton by-election, he had to ask the NEC for permission to stand. This was because he is the Mayor of Manchester, and all Mayors have to obtain permission to put themselves forward for selection as a by-election candidate.
That time, the NEC refused to let him put himself up for selection by local members. And this time it was the Green Party that wiped the floor with the official Labour candidate.
Now even the NEC has realised that they can’t refuse Burnham permission to enter the selection contest. Refusing him a second time would lead to a mass outcry in party ranks – and the only thing stopping a mass walkout is that so many party members have left anyway.
The local Labour Party, under NEC supervision, will now select a candidate for the coming by-election in Makerfield. If Burnham is selected as the Labour candidate, he will have to win the by-election. In what should have been a safe Labour seat, Reform UK won every council seat in the elections at the start of this month. This is making some commentators over-excited: how can Burnham win?
The answer is: it’s the electorate, stupid. The electorate in Manchester did not vote Reform UK because they wanted to support some dubious men in suits who knew what they were against. They voted Reform UK because they wanted someone to listen. Keir Starmer has never come across as a man who was listening – and nor, to be fair, have the vast majority, probably all, of the Cabinet. Burnham comes across as someone who understands the North-West and the problems its people face. And he has found solutions to many of those problems too. He will attract the votes of many residents who see him as the man who can save the Labour Party – and who believe the Labour Party is worth saving.
Burnham now has to be chosen by party members to be the candidate, and he has to win the by-election. Once in Parliament, if he jumps those two hurdles to get there, he then has to get nominated by 81 Labour MPs to stand for leader. Although the media keep harping on about how no leadership contest has yet been declared, Labour Party headquarters will soon be standing out conference packs to all local Labour Parties. These will include the standard invitation for those parties to nominate their candidate for Leader. That happens every year. Usually parties nominate the sitting Leader, if they nominate at all. This year, a nomination for Burnham would see a leadership election, conducted by a postal ballot of all members, taking place before the Party’s Annual Conference in the autumn.
The postal ballot of members may be, if he gets there, the hardest of all the hurdles Burnham has to jump. With many local parties and their committees suspended, there is little life in many Labour Parties – yet another fact which contributed to Labour’s loss of council seats this May, but which the NEC is ignoring. And many members have resigned, or at least not renewed their memberships. The party is a shell, in many places, of Blairite lobby groups, and those members are Starmer supporters, not Burnham backers.
One hurdle down – four left to go.
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