Clive Lewis says he’ll resign his Norwich seat to give Burnham a run at Starmer

Norwich South MP Clive Lewis – the first Labour MP to publicly call for Keir Starmer to go last week – has dramatically announced that he is ready to resign his parliamentary seat and force a by-election so that Andy Burnham, currently Greater Mancheseter’s mayor, can stand in his place and challenge Starmer for the Labour leadership.

Burnham, a soft-left former MP who came second to Jeremy Corbyn in the 2015 party leadership election and is a popular figure as mayor, has been an outspoken critic of the faux-Labour PM Starmer and is known to terrify Starmer’s team, whose top man continues to plumb record depths of public distaste.

When questioned on whether he would give up his seat for Burnham, Lewis responded:

It’s a question I’ve asked myself, and I’d have to obviously consult with my wife as well and family, but do you know what, if I’m going to sit here and say country before party, party before personal ambition, then yes, I have to say yes, don’t I?

Calls for Burnham to stand again for Parliament and replace Starmer are not new. In 2022, his outspoken criticism of Starmer’s waterfall of broken promises, with which he conned Labour members into voting him into the leadership, soon led for calls for him to replace retiring MPs and position himself to challenge the dire ‘son of a toolmaker’.

Featured image via the Canary