Andy Burnham 'disappointed' after bid to become MP blocked

Andy Burnham has said he is "disappointed" after being blocked from standing as a candidate for the upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour's ruling body.

As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour's national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday.

But Labour said the party had decided to deny him permission to stand to "avoid an unnecessary mayoral election, which would use substantial amounts of taxpayers' money and resources".

Burnham, a former minister, is widely seen as a potential leadership challenger to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should he return to Westminster.

Writing on X, Burnham expressed concern about the ruling's "impact on the important elections ahead of us", and said he would return with "full focus" to his role as mayor.

"I decided to put myself forward to prevent the divisive politics of Reform from damaging that. We are stronger together and let's stay that way," Burnham said.

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Burham is out of the special election on his patch... Starmer made sure of that. Their version of the DNC had a say.

Anyway, this means the district is wide open and Reform (2nd place last time) are HUGE Players as it'll be three or four-way contest with the Green Party, "Gorgeous" George Galloway (possibly) and Labour splitting the left wing vote

The Green's leader may stand.

Reform have a serious chance if that split holds up. If voters abandon Labour the Greens also have a serious chance as the district is leftist so Reform have their ceiling at around 1/3rd of the vote

It should be entertaining

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