Josh Simons, who has resigned his seat for Burnham, said:
“This moment is is actually about more than just Keir Starmer or Andy Burnham or Wes Streeting… It’s about a fundamental question for my party … ‘Can they win back the trust of working class people that they’ve been losing for decades?
If Andy wins the by-election, my view is that the different bits of the party should come together behind Andy.”
Lisa Nandy told Laura Kuenssberg about Starmer:
“He’s shown before that he’s up for a fight … he took on the leadership of the Labour Party. People said he wasn’t going to win and he did…
He was then told we wouldn’t be able to get back into a government after our worst election defeat in 100 years. I sincerely doubted after 2019 whether we could do that in one term. He didn’t. I wouldn’t write off the prime minister.”
Speaking to Trevor Phillips Badenoch said:
“Andy Burnham is talking about increasing borrowing. That’s going to hit everybody’s mortgages … you’ll be paying a Burnham premium.”
She also told Times Radio:
“Andy Burnham is someone who twice failed to win the leadership and lost to Jeremy Corbyn. I think he is enjoying a popularity from not having to make any difficult decisions. And the minute he gets the job, he will run into problems.”
Speaking at his speech on how to achieve “progressive capitalism” Wes Streeting fired a dig and Andy Burnham:
“Bond markets are not bond villains and fiscal rules matter.”