{"id":632299,"date":"2025-12-14T17:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632299\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T17:19:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T17:19:18","slug":"rubbish-andy-burnham-hits-back-at-nailed-on-westminster-return-plot-rumours","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/632299\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Rubbish!’: Andy Burnham hits back at ‘nailed-on’ Westminster return plot rumours"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fresh speculation emerged that Andy Burnham is seeking a Westminster comebackLizzy Buchan<\/strong> and James Holt<\/strong><\/a> Senior Live and Breaking News Reporter<\/p>\n

16:45, 14 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"FreshFresh speculation emerged that Andy Burnham is seeking a Westminster comeback(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n

Mayor Andy Burnham has hit out at reports that he’s plotting a return to Parliament to challenge Keir Starmer after the May elections. Fresh speculation emerged today that the Greater Manchester Mayor is seeking a Westminster comeback.<\/p>\n

According to the Sunday Times, his allies have identified a ‘nailed-on’ seat where polling shows he could take on Reform. But Mr Burnham posted to X on Sunday morning: “Quite a lot of rubbish in the papers today. Reminds me why I left Westminster in the first place!”<\/p>\n

It comes amid speculation that Keir Starmer could face a challenge to his leadership if Labour<\/a> suffers a drubbing at elections in Scotland, Wales and local authorities in England in May, the Mirror reports.<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr Burnham has long refused to rule out launching another bid to be Labour leader. One seat previously talked up is Gorton<\/a> and Denton<\/a>, in Greater Manchester, which is held by Andrew Gwynne. Mr Gwynne, who was suspended by Labour over offensive WhatsApps, has denied he would stand aside for Mr Burnham.<\/p>\n

Labour MP Clive Lewis has previously said he would step aside in Norwich South to make way for Mr Burnham but the seat is a long way from Manchester. Mr Burnham also irritated ministers and MPs with his antics after fuelling leadership rumours at Labour conference in September.<\/p>\n

And just days ago, Burnham said he believes people ‘underestimate’ what a ‘wrench’ it would be for him to leave his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester as he responded to again being touted as a potential leader of his party.<\/p>\n

\"KeirKeir Starmer(Image: ADRIAN DENNIS, POOL\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However he said that ‘if the call came’ to return to government, ‘I’m not going to just turn away from it.’ Mr Burnham was quizzed about being included on a survey canvassing opinion on potential replacements for Sir Keir Starmer.<\/p>\n

The Times reported this week that Mr Burnham was one of eight names included on the survey sent to local Labour parties, where the think tank Labour Together asked activists who ‘stood the best chance of leading Labour to electoral victory at the next general election.’<\/p>\n

Asked about the development by ITV News, Mr Burnham said it was ‘nothing to do with me.’ “I’m not putting my name in those surveys” he told the broadcaster.<\/a> “Westminster does what it does and I get, often, drawn in without being involved in it all.”<\/p>\n

Mr Starmer said last month that he would lead the party to the next election after a damaging briefing war erupted between No10 and Wes Streeting over the Health Secretary’s ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresh speculation emerged that Andy Burnham is seeking a Westminster comebackLizzy Buchan and James Holt Senior Live and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632300,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[8916,748,393,4884,2465,285,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-632299","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115719070207726696","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632299\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}