London Bangla A Force for the community…
HIS RISK paid off. Andy Burnham – sorry, Andy Burnham MP – won 54.8% in the Makerfield by-election. He smashed Reform into second place – six weeks after they won Council seats across the UK. He won more votes than Reform and its further-right brother party “Restore Britain”.
There will now be a contest for leadership of the Labour Party. It may be a contest of five or six MPs and last three months. It may be a membership vote between Starmer and Burnham. It is most likely to be a “coronation” contest – with Andy Burnham winning because he is the only candidate.
Labour Party members should be careful what they wish for. Yes, most of the very few members who remain in the Labour Party will be delighted to see the end of Starmer – as will the rather more members who have left over the last couple of years (a step they may now be regretting). They will be hoping that Burnham can repeat his Makerfield magic: bring back Labour voters and beat Reform.
It’s a big ask: Burnham is no Lutfur Rahman. Burnham has already said that he will stick by Rachel Reeves’s fiscal rules: he’s going to find it just as hard to make the economy grow as she has. He promised to stand by the “Waspi Women” who have been fighting for pension justice – and backed down a day later. Worst of all, he has said he backs Shabana Mahmood’s approach to immigration, which is indefensible.
Lutfur Rahman said from the start that he would stand by the people. It was his sincerity about this that led the Labour Party to try to stop him becoming their candidate in the first election for a Directly Elected Mayor. Rahman hasn’t faltered since, despite constant harassment from the Labour Party in the form of Commissioners and Envoys (and haughty councillors, staggered that the voters have forgotten it is Labour’s right to rule Tower Hamlets).
The mainstream media have been criticising Starmer since the current Government was elected – because they want to destabilise the Government. As soon as Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, they will turn on him – reporting on his failures. Being Prime Minister, governing on a manifesto from the last General Election, is nothing like being the Executive Mayor of a borough or a city.
With a media still hostile to Labour, no matter who the Leader is, Burnham will find it hard to keep traditional Labour voters believing in him – let alone attract new ones. And continuing Mahmood’s anti-immigrant rhetoric is no way to win voters back from Reform.
Lutfur Rahman has hung on to the love – and votes – of the people, despite everything the establishment (and the Labour Party) has thrown at him. If, or rather when, Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister, he is going to have to choose between following Lutfur Rahman’s example – or driving more Labour voters over to Reform.
●Read more about it:
Lutfur Rahman triumphs in Tower Hamlets Mayor election
Mayor Lutfur Rahman welcomes new homes for rent
