{"id":34624,"date":"2026-05-12T12:34:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34624\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:34:26","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:34:26","slug":"andy-burnham-spotted-in-london-as-speculation-over-westminster-return-mounts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/34624\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham spotted in London as speculation over Westminster return mounts"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mayor of Greater Manchester was photographed near Euston station<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham was spotted in London today – Tuesday – as the Prime Minister faced calls to stand down and speculation over a return to Westminster for the mayor of Greater Manchester grew.<\/p>\n

Mr Burnham was photographed getting into a car close to Euston railway station in the capital having reportedly been seen earlier on a train.<\/p>\n

The former Labour<\/a> MP for Leigh – who was blocked by his party from standing in the Gorton<\/a> and Denton<\/a> by-election in February – is one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Keir Starmer if he resigns as PM.<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a> for the latest on Greater Manchester’s politics in our newsletter<\/p>\n

The mayor has previously indicated he would be willing to overthrow the current Labour leader.<\/p>\n

At last year’s Labour Party<\/a> conference he called for a ‘debate on our direction’ and in November he refused to rule out a challenge, telling BBC<\/a> Breakfast: “I don\u2019t know what the future will hold.”<\/p>\n

Reports ahead of last week’s local elections – which saw the Labour vote collapse in certain areas at the polls – suggested Mr Burnham was working on a plan to return to Westminster and eyeing up seats where MPs are prepared to step aside for him.<\/p>\n

The photo of Mr Burnham, in London having pulled out of a planned speech in Manchester on Tuesday, is fueling speculation he may have found a seat to contest.<\/p>\n

As Sir Keir Starmer faces calls today from dozens of Labour MPs to stand down, there have been statements of support for the former health minister, as well as subtle hints of support.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The mayor has been pictured in London(Image: PA)<\/p>\n

The PM, however, issued a statement on Tuesday after a showdown Cabinet meeting in which he said he would ‘get on with governing’ and wouldn’t be setting out a timetable for his departure, as many Labour MPs have demanded.<\/p>\n

As the current mayor of Manchester, who does not have a seat in Parliament, the route to the top could be strewn with hurdles for Mr Burnham.<\/p>\n

If a seat were to become vacant, he would need to win over the National Executive Committee (NEC), who is responsible for choosing Labour\u2019s candidates.<\/p>\n

In January this year the NEC blocked Mr Burnham from running in the by-election.<\/p>\n

A 10-strong group, including the Prime Minister, voted to deny Mr Burnham permission to stand in the Greater Manchester by-election.<\/p>\n

Sir Keir justified the move arguing \u201can election for the Mayor of Manchester when it\u2019s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister faced criticism over this decision, particularly after Green Party MP Hannah Spencer came out on top in the competition. Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell, the only member of the NEC to vote in favour of allowing Mr Burnham to stand, said he \u201cprobably would have\u201d held the seat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The mayor of Greater Manchester was photographed near Euston station Andy Burnham(Image: Getty Images) Andy Burnham was spotted…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[7786,27,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-34624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-london","10":"tag-politics"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116561632474618855","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}