Allies of Greater Manchester’s Mayor Andy Burnham are desperately trying to convince Catherine West to abandon her leadership bid less than an hour after she launched it.
West, a former minister said that she would attempt to trigger a leadership contest to force the Prime Minister to resign if no Cabinet ministers were to put themselves forward.
West has said that she fears there is no certainty that the Greater Manchester mayor will get a seat in parliament and says the “current situation has to be addressed with urgency”.
The “radical change” needed by the government cannot be delayed she has said and added that she does not believe that Kier Starmer’s speech on Monday would persuade her or her colleagues that he remains the best person to lead the country.
Labour she says,is in an “electoral emergency”, and the leadership team needs to come forward “with a vision of how we can stop losing elections”
Reports meanwhile say that that the Burnham team are saying There’s just one priority right now: delay
“This isn’t a game” and “no one remotely serious should be anywhere near this Catherine plan”, one says
While another report says Burnham allies say if a contest is triggered this week it will be between Streeting and Anglea Rayner, and that they are very worried Rayner’s opponents will be able to brief stories to the media to blow up Rayner’s campaign, clearing his path to No10.
Meanwhile the education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has given a candid interview to the media
She said that the party ’embedded a sense of gloom’ early on and caused ‘huge, huge problems’ by stripping people of the winter fuel allowance
Firstly the decision we made around the winter fuel allowance. We went too far. That caused us huge, huge problems.
‘Alongside that we were too gloomy and too negative early on. People knew the country was a mess. They didn’t need us to remind them.
‘People voted for change for a reason. They wanted us to focus on what we as a government were willing to deliver. Those early mistakes embedded a sense of gloom’
