Benefits rebels back Andy Burnham

Labour’s benefits rebels have backed Andy Burnham in his challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership of the party.

MPs who defeated the Prime Minister’s attempts at welfare reform told The Telegraph it was clear “this administration is coming to an end” and that Labour voters on the doorstep were calling for a new party leader.

They are among MPs who have backed Mr Burnham after his allies set up Mainstream, a new soft-Left campaign group, and are calling on Downing Street to end the two-child benefit rule, introduce wealth taxes and nationalise utility companies.

The Greater Manchester Mayor is expected to criticise Sir Keir explicitly at Labour’s annual party conference later in September, calling for a “reset” to help the party win the next general election.

Mr Burnham, who would have to regain a seat in the Commons, is laying the groundwork for a leadership bid as speculation mounts that Sir Keir will not make it to the next public vote.

The Prime Minister is facing warnings from within his party that he is “supping in the last-chance saloon” because of how he handled Lord Mandelson’s sacking as US ambassador and the resignation of Angela Rayner as deputy prime minister.

He is under pressure to spell out what he knew about Lord Mandelson’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and why he appointed him despite being presented with a Cabinet Office file about the peer’s links to the late convicted paedophile.

The Prime Minister will face questions about the scandal on Monday as he seeks to revive his “reset” ahead of this week’s state visit by Donald Trump, announcing US-UK deals to build nuclear plants in Britain as part of a “golden age” of clean energy.

This week will also see the first deportations of Channel migrants back to France under the one in, one out agreement Sir Keir signed with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, as well as the long-awaited Hillsborough lawcreating a legally enforceable duty of candour on public officials, including the police.

However, Sir Keir is being warned by a growing number of MPs and trade union leaders that he has until May to turn around his Government’s fortunes, with allies eyeing Mr Burnham as the biggest threat.

One MP who rebelled on welfare and is a supporter of Mr Burnham said: “He really does represent what the Labour Party is about. He’s not only demonstrated that across Manchester, but the leadership he does give on many issues, and I think that’s the kind of leadership that we need at this time.

“It’s clear to me this administration is coming to an end. We need to think about the big political challenges of our time.

“Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, it’s clear dissatisfaction with the role of government has escalated over many years. We need fresh thinking. That’s what the whole Mainstream project is about.”

A second Labour welfare rebel said: “He represents a part of the country that is not really reflected in our membership at the moment as a party. Andy is that voice for the North. I don’t think anyone else really has the credibility to claim to be able to speak for it.

“When I go out door knocking, it’s like, ‘I still prefer the Labour Party, but you need to get rid of your leader’. And when you say to people, ‘Well, who would you want as leader?’ Andy is one of the top names they mention.”

The MPs were among more than 120 who threatened to revolt over cuts to disability and sickness benefits that would have saved about £5bn a year by 2030, triggering the biggest rebellion of Sir Keir’s premiership.

Kyle: Burnham should stay in Manchester

Allies of the Prime Minister, however, sought to head off the threat from Mr Burnham. On Sunday Peter Kyle, the Business Secretary, suggested that Mr Burnham should remain in Manchester rather than seeking to return to the Commons, having stood down as an MP in 2017.

“Andy’s a real talent,” Mr Kyle said. “I think he’s doing an incredible job in Manchester at the moment, and I think Manchester really needs him. I love working with him in Manchester. It’d be a shame for Manchester to lose him.”

A senior Labour figure from the Blair era warned that Mr Burnham should “put up or shut up”, saying that David Miliband had blown his chances of the leadership in 2008 by vacillating over his decision about whether to run.

They added: “The question is whether Andy is going to back off for the time being at the party conference because if he doesn’t, he has to make up his mind as to whether it’s all or nothing.”

The Labour grandee urged Sir Keir to ditch Morgan McSweeney, his chief of staff, who pushed for Lord Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador and is facing fury from some backbenchers who believe he is pushing the party too far to the Right.

They said: “Einstein’s quote comes to mind about doing something over and over again and getting the same outcome. That applies in spades to Morgan McSweeney.”

Mr McSweeney was said to have been a driving force in Sir Keir’s reshuffle earlier in September in which Lucy Powell, the Manchester Central MP, was sacked from her Cabinet role as Leader of the Commons.

She is now being backed by Mr Burnham for the Labour deputy leadership, in what has been seen as an attempt to secure an ally at the top of the party.

Ms Powell – who is up against Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary – warned that the contest must not become a “proxy” for the battle between the Manchester mayor and Sir Keir.

She said: “A contest between two strong women being turned into a proxy context (sic) for two men. I think it’s, quite frankly, sexist.

“Woe betide anyone who wants to try and tell me that I’m subservient to some other man. I’m probably more alpha male than most men I know.”

Ms Powell added that Labour had made “too many unforced errors and mistakes” since coming to power, but insisted she was loyal to the Prime Minister.

However, Graham Stringer, a senior Labour MP and former leader of Manchester city council, said Sir Keir was “vulnerable” in the wake of the Lord Mandelson scandal.

The ambassador to the US was sacked last week, days before Mr Trump’s state visit, after emails emerged revealing he had urged Epstein to fight for early release from jail.

Mr Stringer, a junior minister under Sir Tony Blair, said the Government was “fraying at the edges” because of Sir Keir’s lack of political skills and his reliance on other people to take decisions rather than make them himself.

Mr Stringer, the MP for Blackley and Broughton, said: “He is supping in the last-chance saloon. Now he needs to take control of key, critical issues. He seems to stand back and leave it up to other people. He is the person at the top. He needs to make decisions.”

Reeves to cut energy costs

Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, is drawing up plans to cut household energy costs as part of an economic reset, with a Treasury source saying that Ms Reeves and Sir Keir were “determined to tackle inflation, address the cost of living crisis and get serious about bringing down energy bills”.

Ministers are concerned that Labour could lose ground to Nigel Farage’s Reform party unless it gets to grips with these issues.

However, there is scepticism in Whitehall about whether Ms Reeves could afford to take cost-cutting measures – such as removing green levies from bills – with an estimated £40bn hole in the public finances to fill.

With Labour polling at a little above 20 per cent, some 10 percentage points behind Reform, and with tax rises looming in the November Budget, the discontent has spread to the wider Labour movement.

There have been warnings that May’s local elections will be a key test for Sir Keir’s premiership. A union leader told the Financial Times: “The public don’t like him or know what he stands for. If Reform sweeps the board in the May elections in Wales, he faces a serious moment of peril.”

An increasing number of MPs think elections to the Welsh Senedd and the Scottish parliament, along with polls to English councils, will prove a major test of Sir Keir’s authority and whether he can put a stop to the rise of Reform.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]