Housing Secretary Steve Reed spoke to Victoria Derbyshire
Housing Secretary Steve Reed spoke to Victoria Derbyshire
The Labour Party is united behind Andy Burnham as its next leader, two senior party figures have told the BBC.
The party set out a timeline for a leadership contest following Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s resignation earlier this week, but there is scant evidence of support for any contenders other than Burnham.
Former defence minister Al Carns has said a speech on Monday, in which Burnham will set out his economic policy, will decide whether he challenges him for the Labour leadership.
Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell and Housing Secretary Steve Reed, who had stayed loyal to Sir Keir, both said that Labour MPs were backing a coronation of Burnham, rather than a contest.
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Labour will unite behind Andy Burnham, Steve Reed says
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Labour will unite behind Andy Burnham, Steve Reed says
“I’m pleased that actually what it looks like is we’re probably going to have just the one candidate in Andy Burnham,” Powell told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme.
“How refreshing that would be – that the whole Labour Party is agreed on the new leader and we don’t have to go through a contest that could be damaging at this point in time.
“Now we’ve all got to get behind that leader and stop the kind of infighting and chitter chatter from the background.”
Reed agreed the party was “going to move very swiftly to uniting behind Andy Burnham” without “turning inwards”, which he described as absolutely essential.
While a general election is not necessary to replace a prime minister, calling one is seen as a test of a new prime minister’s support among the public.
Powell was among then-opposition figures to call for a general election when the Conservatives forced Liz Truss out of office as prime minister in 2022.
But she denied that it was hypocritical that she did not want one to test a new Labour leader.
“I think we were in very particular times after Liz Truss crashed the economy,” she said, adding: “People want us to get on with the job and deliver the change they want to see.”
Reed, too, said this time was very different as the Tories had repeatedly changed leader while in government.
Reform UK’s Nigel Farage has called for an immediate general election, but the Conservatives have not.
Shadow housing secretary James Cleverly told Victoria Derbyshire, who was standing in for Kuenssberg, that a general election would delay key decisions, particularly on defence spending.
He said the Tories would be ready to fight a general election, adding: “I, of course, did not call for one when we changed leaders mid-term, but there is a job of work to be done and we should get on with it.”
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Powell, the MP for Manchester Central, said that further devolution of powers to local areas would be a priority for Burnham’s administration if he won the Labour leadership race.
“He’s got a really strong agenda about changing that,” she said, adding that it was “something that, actually, was in our manifesto but we’ve really not realised in the scale and speed in which we should have”.
“If we had more control over things like skills and local transportation we could better connect people to all those new job opportunities of the future.”
Burnham is expected to give a closely watched speech in Manchester on Monday to outline his economic vision for the country, which will have a strong emphasis on devolution to drive growth and which could be key to winning over potential challengers such as Carns.
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