Andy Burnham does challenge Starmer, but to something weird af

Andy Burnham arrived at the Labour Party conference to annoy Starmer purely by breathing, again. The mayor of Greater Manchester told the audience at a Guardian fringe event that he’s absolutely double-dog dare definitely not running for leader, then continued to say a lot of things in opposition to the prime minister, who everyone hates.

Andy Burnham lays into Starmer’s Labour at conference

Among other things, he wants to scrap not being able to use disabled bus passes before 9.30am, called out MPs losing the whip, and essentially challenged Starmer to outlive him.

Asked what he thought of Brexit, Burnham said:

I don’t think there is any prospect of rejoining any time soon but I do think you call out what has put the country in this position.

When asked if he wanted to rejoin the European Union, he replied:

Long term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it… I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin. People prosper more when they’re part of unions.

This comment is in direct opposition to his definitely not leadership opponent, prime minister Keir Starmer, who last year said the UK would not join the EU in his lifetime. At 55, Burnham is eight years younger than Starmer, so he essentially just really weirdly challenged the prime minister to outlive him?

Not standing for Labour leader? Probably…

Burnham also denied launching a bid to be the new leader of the Labour Party, but didn’t deny that there’d been conversations where other MPs asked him to challenge Starmer. He also essentially said the Telegraph were shit-stirrers and that his interview, where they all but announced his leadership bid, was:

overwritten, and inaccurate in some respects.

Asked about his supposed leadership bid, Burnham simply said:

I can’t launch a leadership campaign, I’m not in parliament, so that is the bottom line.

Which isn’t a no. He did, however, call out the ridiculousness of MPs having the whip suspended for disagreeing with the government, such as voting against benefit cuts.

He said:

If the party is being run in a factional way, it won’t be able to benefit from having a range of voices working together.

However, seemingly his main motivation for not becoming PM is that he’d have to live in London and that it was a: “mistake to assume I’m desperate to go back there”.

As a northerner, that’s something we can agree on.

Feature image via ITV News/YouTube.