Starmer has gotten his excuses in for stitching up Burnham

As we reported, the Labour Party has blocked Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection. Everyone knows why they did this; it’s because Starmer is a failure as PM, and everyone knows Burnham wants to take his place. The party itself, meanwhile, has offered an alternative version of reality.

Starmer — weasel words

The decision on whether Burnham could stand was made by the NEC, who voted 8-1 against. They’ve now issued the following excuse for the decision:

The NEC believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester Mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources ahead of the local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd in May. Although the Party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk.

Andy Burnham is doing a great job as Mayor of Greater Manchester. We believe it is in the best interests of the party to avoid an unnecessary Mayoral election which would use substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money and resources that are better spent tackling the cost of living crisis. We look forward to fighting and winning the upcoming by-election in Gorton and Denton and the positive campaign ahead which will be firmly focussed on tackling the cost of living and bringing investment to the local area.

The funniest thing Andy Burnham could do now would be to switch to Zack Polanski’s party, turning Greater Manchester Green. He’s incredibly unlikely to do that, of course, because he’s not an ardent leftist; he’s just to the left of the disastrous Starmer operation.

You may have noticed this excuse comes from the NEC, whereas the headline to this piece reads “Starmer gets his excuses in”. The reason for that is because the NEC isn’t really an independent body; it’s an extension of Starmer. It’s supposed to be an independent body, but Starmer has done everything in his power to ensure it serves him, not the party.

Our own Skwawkbox predicted that Burnham couldn’t pass the NEC test, writing on 22 January:

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

As people have highlighted, the Burnham decision doesn’t mean Starmer can cling on to power; it just means his eventual replacement is likely to be — *holds back vomit* — Wes ‘Privatise It’ Streeting:

The Labour Party died today.

Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as an MP.

So when Keir Starmer goes, he'll be replaced by more of the same. So they will lose the next election.

So our choices are Reform UK or the Greens. That's it. pic.twitter.com/djnvpVEfIQ

— Femi (@Femi_FPolitics) January 25, 2026

Starmer is so universally loathed in the UK that his terribleness is literally the only thing we all agree on. In that sense, he’s something of a great uniter. After all, it’s rare we agree with anything Rupert Lowe says, and yet he’s spot on here:

Starmer is no leader. He's a bureaucrat. An incredibly boring bureaucrat, and an incredibly ineffective bureaucrat. That poisonous mix of being utterly incompetent, but also blindingly arrogant. All with the personality of a doorknob. What a crap Prime Minister.

— Rupert Lowe MP (@RupertLowe10) January 25, 2026

Hypocrisy

Clearly, the Labour members in Gorton & Denton should have had the option to choose Andy Burnham. And do you know who agrees with that? Keir Starmer in 2020:

The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates. Local Party members should select their candidates for every election.

— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) February 4, 2020

Yet again, Starmer has shown that you can’t trust him as far as you can overthrow him.

Featured image via Heute