If Burnham wants to get into No 10 contest, he must promise no EU return
Starmer mini-me Wes Streeting has turned on his former boss and confirmed his intention to stand to replace Keir Starmer in Downing Street. He has little prospect of winning — even Starmer would hammer him, according to the latest polling of Labour members. Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has declared his intention of standing in the Makerfield by-election in the hope of getting into the contest. But Burnham faces the major hurdle of having to win a seat dominated by Reform in last week’s local elections.
But Streeting has — apparently unwittingly — opened a potential door for a Burnham win. Presumably in his desperation to improve his dire standing with party members, Streeting has told Europhile Labour right-wingers of the ‘Progress’ faction that he wants to take the UK back into the EU if he wins.
This will infuriate Makerfield Reform voters, who despise Starmer and want him gone but will not want to risk re-returning to the EU. But if they vote in a Reform MP, he (it will almost certainly be a man) will not be in a position to prevent Streeting carrying out his plan if Streeting manages to get into Downing Street. Burnham could. He is miles ahead of both Streeting and Starmer with Labour members — if he can get into Parliament to stand in the Labour leadership race.
Burnham — Two big gambles
Burnham has previously also mentioned rejoining the EU. But if Burnham he is serious about winning Makerfield, he needs to announce immediately that he will not attempt to rejoin the EU, at least in this parliament. Reform voters might then lend him their vote, especially if Burnham campaigns hard on Farage’s plans to replace the NHS with an insurance system. There are indications he or at least his advisers have realised this.
The big gamble then for Burnham would be that opposing re-entering the EU (the EU would be mad to accept us back anyway, mind) might put Labour members off him. But he is currently beating Starmer by 61%–28%, while Starmer is beating Streeting by 53%–23%.
He’s already taking a big risk by standing in a seat in which he’s a distant second favourite, when defeat will sooner or later cost him the mayoralty. Will he roll the dice to improve the odds in the first one?
Featured image via Gary Oakley/Getty Images
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Lightweight political nonentity with his bland statements Streeting said we need the best candidates to stand for Labour Leader so er that rules him out!
And despite Lab being hammered in Brexit voting areas Lumpen Streeting slaps diverse working class people in the face again, for having the temerity to vote Leave, by calling for a return to the EC!
Primary school politics from Mr S.
And Lightweight Labour Friends of Israel member Burnham once said The Balfour Declaration showed “The Best of Britain” er White Western supremacists from thousands of miles away deciding top down, without consulting Palestinians, that Jewish people can have “A Home” in Palestine but NOT a state or country which Zionists has been pressing for at the time.
Burnham also supports A 2 State Imperialism in Palestine.
Question for Mr B: Could you comment on the following: According to The Oxford Solders Museum 784 British soldiers, men, women and civilians were killed by the Zionist Hagena, Irgun & Stern Gang in Palestine between 1945-48.
Is this your Zionism Mr Burnham?
Burnham is Right Wing Labour’s Mediocre Last Great White Hope!
“re-returning to the EU”? Has the UK returned to the EU before? The article seems to be written from the perspective of Reform UK and is offering advice on how to attract far right voters. Canary goes from abysmal to worse.
Hello Morgan you still here?
You missed the following “But if Burnham he is serious about winning Makerfield ”
The “Pedant” proof reader is slipping?
Returning to the EU (or not) is the least of the UK’s problems right now! Amazing this is even a thing. Does anybody seriously care?
Corp/finance ownership of democracy, zero representation, austerity genocide, cost of living, a captive workforce soon to be on a slave/consumer digital authoritarianism grid, zero hope, zero opportunity, genocide enablers in the NHS, zionists in everywhere, useless police, crooked courts, zero culture funding, zero arts opportunities, small business collapse, youth braindrain and mass emigration.
There’s about a thousand problems before we get to this one. WTF are you on about?
99 Problems But This Bitch Ain’t One
So only a Green vote will make sense.
… for well-off, middle-class voters.
Do you not understand what “Corp/finance ownership of democracy, zero representation” means?
Are all those words too big and complicated for your fuzzywuzzy green brain?
Fucking green vote! What the fuck is wrong with people? Mugs mugs mugs mugs mugs mugs mugs.
The EC was captured by Neo-Liberalism via Maastrict so once the EC Neo-Liberals had their economic hegemony they could afford a few reforms to reel in political Lightweight liberals and some naive Socialists both of whom couldn’t see the Neo-Liberal Wood because of a few progressive trees.
Of course some argue probably over an expensive meal in a posh London restaurant Blair, Mandelson, Starmer et al decided on the nuclear option, for Labour to deliberately lose via the electoral suicide of a 2nd Referendum vote, two thirds of Lab seats were in Brexit voting areas, because they couldn’t beat Corbyn & his movement on IDEAS and this was the only way they could get what was their party, not the members party, back.
So they threw millions of diverse working class people under Johnson’s bus of more cuts and attacks on them!
So how many times will Right Wing Lab continue to slap working class voters in the face because they had the temerity to vote Leave.
And even Lightweight Burnham says he eventually wants to rejoin the EC and scratch the surface of the radical liberal Greens and they would no doubt too.
There was nothing “unwitting” about Streeting reopening the Pandora’s Box of EU membership at this point in time. To me, it looks like he’s done it to kneecap Burnham in Makerfield. Instead of focusing on cost of living (which, yes, is massively tied up with the self-inflicted kick in the balls which was Brexit) and potential renationalisations, Burnham is now going to be fending off attacks from Reform and the Conservatives that a vote for him is a vote to rejoin the EU.
Hazmatt, I agree.
Snake Streeting has tossed a Pro EC hand grenade in, escalating old wounds to make the conditions harder for Burnham if not to potentially skewer his chances completely & to eliminate a rival who otherwise would have beaten the nonentity by a church mile.
So could be Starmer or Streeting er Crap v Crapper?
But the lumpen has perhaps also blown up Labour’s chances for ever in the process.
A party led by political drones that stands now for nothing, that under Corbyn, despite Right Wing sabotage, got 12.8m votes when Starmer in 2024 got 9.6m votes as Reform for the Rich split the Right vote to let capital’s new Safe Lab friend in until their sell by date.
Bourgeois Parliamentary games eh as millions suffer in the cost of living crisis.
Burnham today at a Conference in Leeds said we have had 40 years of Centralisation and the starving of local councils and need to reverse this (which is good, he gets it and he is trying to think but actually might lack the political acumen & bottle to do it?) but this, as a Your Party member, is exactly what I’ve been saying as the social Democratic magpie’s team water down my words & can’t I bring themselves to say 40+ years of NEO-LIBERALISM
with it’s main party proponents (Tories/Lib Dems/Reform/Blairite Lab/Right Wing Lab) believing in a small local state, cutting billions from local councils, and crushing local government and local democracy in the process.
And in the recent local elections you had the choice of which parties cuts you preferred,
some choice! Some local democracy!
So we need to start the process of ending Neo-Liberalism and to replace it with a COLLECTIVISM WITH – instead of the top down of old, this time giving workers & communities a say in the running of services and ending the top down bureaucratic paternalism of councils too.
It would help to have social Democrats, Socialist parties like Your Party & possibly the radical liberal Greens to be pushing in the same direction though it looks like Your Party heavyweights will have to lead on the intellectual arguments.
But the broad left needs to start turning the wheels of history now!
❤️☮️⚖️ Solidarity.
Above – 10 lines down, delete the ‘I’ at the beginning.