\n<\/p>\n
Andy Burnham has said there is a climate of fear in Labour and it needs to change, as he defended his actions in \u201claunching a debate\u201d about the future of the party \u2013 seen by many as a challenge to Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n
The Greater Manchester mayor has prompted outrage within No 10 and among cabinet ministers after he said last week that many MPs had urged him to run as Labour leader and questioned the government\u2019s economic approach.<\/p>\n
No 10 had hoped Burnham would stop criticising the party at its Liverpool conference, with Starmer warning that navel-gazing and introspection was not the way to fight a generational battle for the soul of the country against Nigel Farage\u2019s Reform UK.<\/p>\n
Alan Johnson, a former Labour cabinet minister, told the BBC that his advice for Burnham was: \u201cGo and find a television camera, stand in front of it and say \u2018I have no intention of standing against the elected leader of our party\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Burnham defended his actions and continued his criticisms of Labour at a fringe event on Sunday, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve been accused of all things in the last week, as you can probably see.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve done nothing more than launch a debate. And what I would say to those who say that I\u2019m speaking out purely for my own ambition, I can say to you all tonight I am speaking out for the thousands of councillors here at this conference who are worried about going to those doorsteps next May, speaking for the members of the Senedd who, again, are working hard to keep Wales Labour, that\u2019s what we want to do next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, of course, members of the Scottish parliament as well, who want a stronger story about Labour to go to those doorsteps. I\u2019m speaking out for the millions of good people around Britain who want a more hopeful direction for the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
He called for Labour to end a \u201cclimate of fear\u201d in the party, saying there should be more room for debate and people should be able to express a broader range of views.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing I am worried about, and I think we do need to debate at this conference in my view, is how can you have an open debate about all of those things if there\u2019s too much of a climate of fear within our party and the way the party is being run,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He criticised a situation where \u201ca party member is suspended for liking a tweet by another political party, or a member of parliament loses the whip for trying to protect disability benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cIf that is the way we\u2019re doing things, where debate is being closed down, that to me is what we\u2019ve got to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also spoke out against demands for \u201csimplistic statements of loyalty\u201d, saying: \u201cIf that closes down the debate we need, I think it\u2019s at risk of underestimating the peril the party is in as we get to the polls next May.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior party figures have been privately furious with Burnham, particularly over comments questioning the economic approach of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets,\u201d he said in an interview with the New Statesman.<\/p>\n
They last week compared the Greater Manchester mayor\u2019s attitude to the cavalier approach taken by the former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss, in a sign of how low relations between No 10 and Burnham have plunged.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a different fringe event, Wes Streeting, the health secretary, called for the party \u201cto get behind our team captain\u201d, but also offered a coded attack of his own, saying the government should be more open to debate and internal criticism.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have avoided some of the mistakes of the past year if we\u2019d listened to our MPs. We\u2019ve got to have the humility to listen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do have to be able to create space for us to engage in a battle of ideas,\u201d Streeting added. \u201cEspecially when things are this tough, and where we\u2019ve got an existential fight on our hands against Reform at the next general election, we have to be self-confident in our ideas, our vision and direction as government ministers, and be open to challenge, and open to critique and engage in the battle of ideas ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last week, UK borrowing costs surged to the highest level since early September, in what may have been market unease at Burnham\u2019s comments. One official said the rise was equivalent to half of what it would cost to scrap the two-child benefit limit, which Burnham has called for.<\/p>\n
Starmer is also understood to be furious at Burnham\u2019s admission, in several interviews, that he would seek to challenge the prime minister for the leadership if there was a path to do so.<\/p>\n
Burnham would need a Westminster seat to challenge for the leadership and there is currently no vacancy. But he is seen by a number of Labour MPs as an opportunity for a change in economic strategy and a more robust challenger to Reform UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Andy Burnham has said there is a climate of fear in Labour and it needs to change, as he defended his actions in \u201claunching a debate\u201d about the future of the party \u2013 seen by many as a challenge to Keir Starmer. The Greater Manchester mayor has prompted outrage within No 10 and among cabinet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24507,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[2094,3265,186,638,1518,134,11855],"class_list":{"0":"post-24506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics","8":"tag-andy","9":"tag-burnham","10":"tag-climate","11":"tag-debate","12":"tag-fear","13":"tag-labour","14":"tag-shutting"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/24507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}