No, Gwynne’s alleged retirement won’t open “new route to Parliament” for Burnham

The Guardian and other establishment media outlets are touting claims that ‘independent’ MP Andrew Gwynne’s alleged retirement plan will open a “new route to Parliament” for Andy Burnham. This way, he can challenge Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership. It won’t.

The Greater Manchester mayor is the liberals’ ‘great hope’ to replace Starmer and rehabilitate Labour in the public perception. He has been a popular mayor. He would certainly be an Everest-size step up from the appalling Starmer. Or anyone on Starmer’s front bench. But he’s also no silver bullet. Burnham was the front-runner for the party leadership in 2015. However, he abstained on Tory cuts and was trounced by Jeremy Corbyn.

But his (indisputable) superiority to Starmer is what guarantees that Starmer’s lackeys will pull every trick to block him from contesting parliamentary election. So will those who hope to replace Starmer when he is inevitably forced out. They won’t want the competition. And while his stance on Gaza has been bland to put it kindly, he hasn’t been rabidly pro-Israel. That’s enough to instil horror in most Labour MPs. After all, Starmer’s faction rigged selections for the 2024 general election. This included barring many Black candidates.

And there’s no shortage of tricks and levers for the NEC to pull.

The NEC (National Executive Committe)

Despite Starmer’s 2020 leadership election promise to allow members to decide who stands for election, the NEC decides the process. Like the rest of the party, it’s now stacked with Starmeroids – or in many cases Israel loyalists, which is functionally the same thing. The NEC can impose a shortlist of favoured flunkies on party members in Gwynne’s seat. Or it can decide that it’s ‘essential’ to make an ‘all-woman shortlist.’ The Labour right is so well known for its commitment to women, after all.

Or if it was in the mood to send a message of its contempt, it could find a pretext to suspend Burnham’s membership of the Labour party. That would automatically prevent him standing for selection.

None of these are theoretical. The NEC has used all of them shamelessly, since Starmer became party leader, to block candidates it doesn’t like.

Of course, even if Burnham somehow got into a parliamentary seat wearing a Labour rosette, it wouldn’t mean any prospect of him challenging Starmer. One of the first things the red Tory faction did when it conned members into making Starmer Labour leader was to rig leadership election nomination rules. The changes made it impossible for a future ‘Corbyn’ ever to stand – and the above-mentioned selection-rigging has ensured that nobody to the left of Starmer has a prayer either.

The liberal press has a vested interest in pretending the rotting carcass of what used to be the Labour party still has life in it. That interest does not coincide with the interests of the many. Don’t be fooled.

Featured image via the Canary