There will be 'ABSOLUTELY NO ATTEMPT' to BLOCK Andy Burnham from standing in by-election

Añadido: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]And I just want to say a little bit as well about my own constituency in Manchester Central. I've worked really closely with Andy Burnham and I'm going to just say something about Andy in a in a minute. Um, we we had some real challenges over recent years uh with proposed cuts to fire uh services in Manchester. Um, we we stopped those and Andy has done I think a really good job in Greater Manchester at making sure that we invest in our fire stations and our fire services because there is an evolving threat which you are all at the forefront of. Whether that's building safety, whether that's terrorism, whether that's wildfires growing uh as a threat as well in in my region. And I'm really proud of that work that I've done with Andy in Greater Manchester.

[00:00:44]And can I just say on Andy Burnham because I know he's uh someone um that you are uh keen on, rightly so in my view. Um, look, the the election results that we had recently in the Labour Party were were very difficult and painful.

[00:00:59]Uh, and and the aftermath hasn't been all that uh edifying either. Um, we could have further to fall as a party and we absolutely need to come back together as one team because we've got to take the fight to Farage. Uh, we are at real risk of Nigel Farage walking up Downing Street in a few years time and we can't let that happen. But we've got to do our politics differently. We've got to end the factionalism. We've got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour Party, all the different voices and bring one team uh back together. And that means having Andy Burnham as a key player in that team in my view. He has now expressed since uh since you've been meeting at this conference his view, his desire to come back to Parliament. There's now a vacancy. I supported Andy last time he wanted to come back to Parliament and I fully support him wanting to come back to Parliament again. And just to be clear, I I'm I'm got it on good authority there's going to be absolutely no attempt to stop him from doing that again. So, we will have him as the candidate, I'm sure.

[00:02:09]And I've just been asked actually in the last 24 hours to be the political lead for that by-election. So, that means the sort of politician involved. So, I'm I'm really going to ask you, especially those of you in Greater Manchester and nearby, this is going to be a tough by-election for us to to win against Reform. And if Andy is selected as the candidate in the coming days, let's see what happens there.

[00:02:35]We are going to need all of your help in that by-election. Now, if you will come along and help us there, I think that would be really great. But look, I think