Labour Cabinet Minister Peter Kyle launched a thinly veiled attack on Andy Burnham by insisting “entitlement is not a qualification for leadership”. The Business Secretary criticised “people that want to thrust themselves forward at moments of instability” in a clear dig at the Greater Manchester mayor, who is attempting to return to Parliament through the Makerfield by-election later this month and potentially replace Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street.
Mr Kyle also said Labour has failed to learn lessons from the Tories on changing leaders. Speaking to journalists at a lunch in Westminster, he said: “I don’t think we’ve learned the lessons of the Tory party in government, where every time there was a problem that was experienced with their government, there was only one solution, and that’s changing the leader at the top.”
Mr Kyle said: “There was never any acceptance in the Tory party at the time that the challenges that they had were related to a programme of government… and they always just felt that changing the person at the top would solve it.”
He expressed his “frustration” over his party’s failure to learn that lesson and criticised colleagues who “blame one person” and fail to “accept responsibility for our collective endeavour as a Government”. The Conservative Party had five Prime Ministers between 2010 and 2024.
Sir Keir’s position remains precarious after Labour’s mauling in the local and devolved elections, with former Health Secretary and leadership hopeful Wes Streeting – a close friend of Mr Kyle – also eyeing the top job.
Mr Burnham replacing Sir Keir would be the “biggest risk to sterling” and Government bonds, according to a hard-hitting analysis.
Financial services firm Ebury has sounded the alarm about the threat to the pound from the “Labour leadership crisis”.
The analysis says a Burnham victory on June 18 would “represent the most significant leftward shift”.
Ebury classed the Mayor of Greater Manchester as a “high” market risk and said there was a 60% chance of him taking over.
The analysis states: “We think that a win for Burnham here would more or less clear his path to Downing Street given that he appears to hold more than enough support among Labour members and MPs in order to trigger and, more importantly, win a leadership contest.
“While this would not automatically install him as prime minister, Keir Starmer would almost certainly tender his immediate resignation at this point.”
Mr Burnham’s team last month attempted to calm the markets by saying that he would stick to the Government’s spending limits. But Ebury identified him as the “biggest risk to sterlings and gilts due to expectations of higher spending, borrowing and taxation”.
The so-called “King of the North” is set to join other candidates in the race to replace Josh Simons MP on BBC’s Question Time on Thursday night.
Rupert Lowe slammed the state broadcaster’s decision to exclude his party from the special as “the most blatant example of bias” he has seen from the BBC.
Restore Britain’s candidate Rebecca Shepherd is not set to appear on the programme despite polling third in the crunch race after Labour and Reform.