I don’t trust Burnham either. As I said up the thread, his stated reasons for wanting to stand were entirely bogus.
Everyone knows what he was planning. He hoped getting back into the Commons was stage 1 in his operation to oust Starmer and become Prime Minister, something he seems to regard as his birthright.
Someone who was a disaster as Health Secretary and couldn’t even defeat Jeremy Corbyn in a leadership contest does appear to have a very high opinion of himself – but politics does attract more than its fair share of sociopaths and narcissists.
However, Starmer and the NEC’s reasons for blocking Burnham are equally bogus. They really care about saving £5 million, do they? Well I am sure they could easily make that sort of small saving elsewhere if they were so minded. They just don’t want to.
Starmer is running scared from a rival. Everyone knows it. He doesn’t emerge any stronger for what he has done. He has clearly angered a substantial section of the party and what was left of his authority is even further diminished. If the by-election is lost, his position is arguably untenable.
John McDonnell isn’t right about very much but I think he is correct to say that Starmer is now more likely to face a leadership challenge in May than he was before (assuming he makes it to May). The likes of Streeting are not even bothering to conceal their ambition now.
Plenty of backbench Labour MPs elected for the first time in 2024 are staring at the prospect of serving only one term. They know they are going down to certain defeat under Starmer and have probably figured they have nothing left to lose by backing someone else.
And please London centric media, stop referring to Burnham as the “King of the North”. If they bothered ever travelling North of Hampstead, they would realise that is lazy, cliched rubbish.