Downing Street is chalking up Burnham’s blockage as a win even as backbenchers organise in favour of the Manchester mayor and government figures privately admit Gorton and Denton is now lost for the Labour Party. It’s the small victories…
A Downing Street source tells Guido that Starmer’s top aides are “wandering around as if they’ve just pulled off Operation Mincemeat” after executing the “only thing Keir could do.” Starmer’s opponents are empowered but government sources still don’t predict any movement until after the May local elections…
Fifty backbenchers have written to Starmer to complain that blocking Burnham is a “real gift” to Reform while the left-wing Tribune Group complains separately to Shabana Mahmood about the NEC decision. Government figures are briefing in anticipation of a hard landing – one tells the Times that the choice was losing the by-election or losing Manchester…
Housing secretary Steve Reed – on the morning round today – said Burnham should serve his full term: “Voters have a right to expect that if they elect a politician to a job, that they will serve out the full term for the job that they have elected them to do.” The Greens are now in pole position with the bookies in Gorton and Denton on 43% to Reform’s 36% – Labour trails on 20%…
Speaking to Matt Chorley on BBC 5 Live, Shabana Mahmood was asked what the naughtiest thing she has ever done is:
“I think I took a drag on a cigarette when I was a teenager, when I shouldn’t have done, but it did trigger an asthma attack. And so I figured that was God telling me, don’t smoke.”