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Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has described whether Sir Keir Starmer will participate in any future leadership contest as a “personal decision.” Speaking on the BBC’s *Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg*, Nandy acknowledged Sir Keir’s resilience, saying he has “shown before that he’s up for a fight” and added, “I wouldn’t write off the prime minister.” Despite this, she expressed her support for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to return to Parliament and be “at the heart of power.”
Burnham is planning to run as Labour’s candidate in the upcoming Makerfield by-election and is widely anticipated to mount a leadership challenge if successful. Sir Keir Starmer would automatically appear on the ballot if he chose to contest a leadership election, and he recently confirmed to journalists that he would stand if such a contest took place. This comes after Starmer defied mounting pressure to resign despite nearly 90 of his own MPs calling for his departure and the loss of five ministers from his government.
Nandy, who represents the Wigan constituency in Greater Manchester and is an ally of Burnham, emphasized her loyalty to Sir Keir. When asked if she believed he should be replaced as Labour leader, she stated unequivocally, “No I don’t. If I did I wouldn’t be in his cabinet.” She further remarked, “I think that we were elected to bring an end to the chaos,” underscoring her confidence in his leadership. While she acknowledged that it was a “very personal decision” for Starmer whether to confirm his candidacy, she noted that he had already said himself he would run and reiterated his history of stepping up to challenges.
Reflecting on recent electoral outcomes, Nandy pointed out that last week’s poor results for Labour demonstrated a perception that the party “haven’t seen enough fight from us.” She said the public wants Labour “on the pitch fighting harder, speaking louder and doing more.” Campaigning alongside Burnham in Makerfield, she shared that constituents want their voices—and those from other long-neglected regions—to be heard clearly and forcefully at the center of government. Although Nandy ran against Starmer for Labour leadership in 2020, she has ruled out contesting any future leadership elections herself.
Burnham’s potential bid faces significant challenges, with Reform UK showing strong performance in recent local elections in the Makerfield area. Labour held the seat with a majority of 5,399 votes in the 2024 general election, but Reform UK has been leading national polls consistently since spring 2023. Due to ward boundary discrepancies, exact vote shares in Makerfield during these local elections are unclear, though Reform UK won approximately half the vote in the area. Despite this, Burnham’s supporters highlight his strong local backing, pointing to his three consecutive mayoral election victories with substantial majorities in Greater Manchester. Nandy commented, “Because of Andy’s record as mayor, people who didn’t vote for [Labour] last week were saying that they would vote for us again,” and described Burnham as “a really important voice that needs to be heard loud and clear at the centre of Westminster.”
The upcoming Makerfield by-election is seen as a critical test for Labour’s future. MP Josh Simons, who has indicated he would vacate his seat to enable Burnham’s candidacy, described the contest as “existential” for the party. He framed the election as a question of whether Labour can regain the trust of working-class voters, saying, “If the answer to that question is yes, then I think we can get to a moment of unifying and coming together from the different traditions across my party.” Meanwhile, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch dismissed the significance of individual candidates, stating, “It doesn’t matter whether it’s Andy Burnham or Keir Starmer, the problem is the Labour Party.”
Another potential factor in any leadership battle is the UK’s stance toward the European Union. Labour MP Wes Streeting recently called Brexit a “catastrophic mistake” and advocated for the UK to “one day” rejoin the EU. Burnham has suggested that rejoining the EU might be considered in the long term but emphasized he is “not advocating that in this by-election.” Nandy, a Remain campaigner in the 2016 referendum, cautioned against oversimplifying the party’s challenges, arguing, “If the answer to all of this was the European Union, then essentially we’d be saying to people what was going on in 2015 in towns like Wigan was absolutely fine.” She pointed to long-standing issues such as declining living standards and the effects of deindustrialisation that Labour must address, stating, “Well, I can tell you that it wasn’t, that people’s living standards had been falling, people’s high streets had been falling apart, people’s kids had had to get out to get on for some time, and that’s to do with deindustrialisation and the failure of governments to address it.
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More
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