Andy Burnham has plan to return to Westminster ‘within weeks’. Allies sayGreater Manchester mayor said to have identified seats where MPs would step aside to allow leadership bid.

TakeThat7

So Angela Raynor is backing Burnham for Prime Minister I really don't know why she thinks she knows about what's good for labour She instigated the changes making it more difficult for people in social housing to buy their homes once she had made money buying hers

Many Labour voters will think that is the right thing to do. Selling houses at huge discounts means that there are fewer for other people to rent, so landlords can put up prices.

Selling council houses was not a Labour initiative, and IMO scrapping RTB is long overdue.

The fact that AR bought her house is neither here nor there. I don't blame individuals for buying social housing (it was basically free money), but I do believe that the system allowing them to do so was very wrong, and underpins a lot of the problems we have today. Low wages and high rents make life unbearable for many, and anything that can mitigate that can only be a good thing.

Galaxy

I was fairly sure that the labour party wouldn't challenge their leader, but I think it is certainly looking like Rayner is making a move.

I couldnt see how they wouldnt.

Have said for months I couldnt see Starmer lasting past May.

We will have to see though.
A month or day is a long time in politics.

I am left wondering if Starmer will stand for reelection . Or not.

Iam64

I’ve always been a bit of a news addict. It may be partly tough family/personal circumstances but I resonated with Casdon in being a bit bored

Yes KS made a mess of comms, of trying to introduce policies he’d not brought the unruly back benchers with him, he made a big mess with Mandelson but ….. he isn’t the devil incarnate and remains the best pm with integrity we’ve had in a while

Is he though? Really?
421 Labour Mps[I really need to look up exact number], and he is the best they have??

He is hardly favorite with the voting public. From what I can see.

In my view they tend to be quite reluctant to challenge leaders Fancythat, they tend to let it drag on in an excruciating fashion rather than make a move.

Casdon

Allira

Sorry but I can't top that one!
😂😂😂

I’m bored now of the media, it’s like Groundhog Day every morning with the will he, won’t he.. I watched the Plaid entry into the Senedd, which was uplifting, as light relief. A bit of Welsh singing always cheers me up.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c7593qw4ggzo

Welsh singing always cheers me up (we have a local male voice choir!) but I can't say that the Plaid win cheered me up in any way.

Iam64

I’ve always been a bit of a news addict. It may be partly tough family/personal circumstances but I resonated with Casdon in being a bit bored

Yes KS made a mess of comms, of trying to introduce policies he’d not brought the unruly back benchers with him, he made a big mess with Mandelson but ….. he isn’t the devil incarnate and remains the best pm with integrity we’ve had in a while

I agree Iam64

Allira

Casdon

Allira

Sorry but I can't top that one!
😂😂😂

I’m bored now of the media, it’s like Groundhog Day every morning with the will he, won’t he.. I watched the Plaid entry into the Senedd, which was uplifting, as light relief. A bit of Welsh singing always cheers me up.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/c7593qw4ggzo

Welsh singing always cheers me up (we have a local male voice choir!) but I can't say that the Plaid win cheered me up in any way.

It did me, because Wales stays well left of centre. I knew Labour would lose badly, and would have felt we’d sold out if Reform had the most seats. I also like Rhun ap Iorwerth, I think he’s a decent man, and he wants the best for Wales. I don’t agree with all their policies, but they are the least bad option as far as I see it.

they are the least bad option as far as I see it

That's probably it.

KS and team need to get a bomb up their rear end and start proposing some fundamental legislation around care funding, social care, education, youth services ... in other words the things that really matter to people in their lives. They need to start behaving like a Labour government with vision and make a big noise about it ... what is the point of them otherwise?

Luckygirl3

KS and team need to get a bomb up their rear end and start proposing some fundamental legislation around care funding, social care, education, youth services ... in other words the things that really matter to people in their lives. They need to start behaving like a Labour government with vision and make a big noise about it ... what is the point of them otherwise?

From what I’ve seen of what has been fed to the press Starmer is :just going to double down on what Labour has done, and is doing, now.

From what I’ve seen of what has been fed to the press Starmer is :just going to double down on what Labour has done, and is doing, now.

Indeed - and therein lies the problem.

I voted Labour for 2 reasons: the Tory government was a dangerous laughing stock; and I wanted a government with a caring agenda, unafraid to tackle the serious inequalities that have been caused by years of Tory rule.

And what have we got? - an attack on private schools (which is just a bit of tinkering in the grand scheme of things) and alienation of the farming community.

They have done some good things but have not shoved them under our noses, which they need to do now.

The party need to get behind their leader to provide some continuity, but he needs to grasp that the same old is not going to cut the mustard. He is fighting a hostile media and needs to take them on by blowing his own trumpet about the reforms that they have instituted on things that people care about, and announcing more.

Bouncing from party to party, leader to leader hampers real progress on the things that matter.

Maybe if Labour’s comms team were putting out what Labour has achieved the public would be more aware.

All we have is the media highlighting their failures and questionable judgements, and they have had a few…

Have seen that Andy Burnham might have a chance as others prepared to stand down for him. Starmer has blocked him in the past which seems to show that Burnham is a definite threat.

There is absolutely nothing stopping Labour's communications team putting out Labour's achievements; there is plenty of Labour media, except that at the moment it seems unusually diffident. Perhaps lack of copy.

Indeed - Labour's PR team is pitiful. KS needs to give them a boot up the rear.

It’s not communication that is the problem eazybee, there is plenty of information there, but it is not headlined. The problem is with PR.

Clive Lewis, Labour MP for Norwich, made a very good post on X, both suggesting how the UK has arrived at the state it is now in and implying support for Burnham on the strength of what he has achieved in Manchester.

It is a very long post but, I think, worth reading.

For those who will not touch X, Richard Murphy has reproduced it in its entirety.

There was also an essay by a Matthew Lawrence, in similar terms published in the New Statesman, but I think a subscription is needed to read it.

x.com/labourlewis/status/2053538238384787606?s=66

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2026/05/11/clive-lewis-the-labour-mp-who-gets-it/

www.newstatesman.com/politics/economy/2026/05/the-case-for-manchesterism?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Choice of links.

Apparently we are going to hear later about "bolder action" rather than "incremental change."

I so hope he delivers - it's what we have all been waiting for. I am not getting over-excited though ...

Sometimes what "we have all been waiting for" is neither possible or wanted by all.

Also, being "bolder" st this stage in a parliament may have been planed all along.

Violetbynight

Have seen that Andy Burnham might have a chance as others prepared to stand down for him. Starmer has blocked him in the past which seems to show that Burnham is a definite threat.

If you dont mind me asking, are you a previous poster who had a name very similar to yours?

[not sure if that question is allowed on GN or not].

but he needs to grasp that the same old is not going to cut the mustard.

I think that that is his main problem now.

He seems so fixated on "he is going the right way and is right", that he can no longer see anything else.

I always did think he lacked vision. Right from the beginning of his leadership.

Maybe I have contradicted myself there?

Begining to think, pointless any more talking about him.
I would be surprised if he carries on being Leader for much longer.
Not sure how long a leadership bid/campaign drags out for.