Who said the Labour party needs “a battle of ideas, not of personalities or petty factionalism … It needs to be broad, and it needs the best possible field of candidates”?
Until Thursday morning, almost everyone would have attributed those words to Andy Burnham, the mayor or Greater Manchester. But those were the closing paragraphs of the former health secretary Wes Streeting’s resignation letter, a cadence so similar to Burnham’s own that it cannot be accidental.
So is this the first glimmer of a deal between Labour’s two powerhouses – the soft left and the centrists?
Streeting might have once hoped he had the chance of a coronation, but he does not have enough names to mount a challenge and Keir Starmer would fight him if he did. He was on the brink of utter humiliation. He knows which way the wind is blowing and it is blowing towards Greater Manchester.
Now Burnham has an opener – Josh Simons the MP for Makerfield has resigned specifically to let the mayor run for parliament.
Nothing is certain in politics. But Burnham is the candidate who has the most support in the parliamentary party, the membership and in the country. No one thinks Starmer has the political authority now to block him via the party’s national executive committee.
So could there be a deal? It is a cliche to say that Burnham, who served under Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and Jeremy Corbyn, has been on a political journey. In recent times, he has been the closest ally of the party’s left, a defender of those who were pursued by Starmer and Morgan McSweeney’s relentless factionalism.
Streeting has a hard-won reputation for being one of the most aggressive anti-Corbyn factionalists, but has recently himself begun to say publicly that even he has been uncomfortable with the way that party discipline has been exerted under Starmer – with the routine suspension of party rebels.
He said the briefings against Burnham – when the mayor sought to run in the Gorton and Denton byelection were “disgraceful.”
And they are both deeply concerned about Reform – and particularly about the rise of outlandish and routine far-right racism.
Although they would seem to be on opposite wings of the party, the two men have barely overlapped in parliament and have no known personal animosity towards each other.
That cannot be said for some of Burnham’s key supporters, including Ed Miliband and Lucy Powell. But Burnham and Streeting have spent time together on the campaign trail at the general election – and on joint health ventures during government.
Many of Streeting’s critics claim he was poised to launch a coup against Starmer from the second week of Labour coming to power. But there is a difference between ambition – and a lack of confidence in the party leader – and being prepared to wield the knife.
Streeting has always been reluctant to launch a leadership challenge. His best hope was Starmer could be persuaded to resign so that he could quickly gather enough support to cut off Burnham’s route to parliament and leave the soft left so divided over whether to back Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband that Streeting would be the only candidate.
His options were narrowing and he has decided not to humiliate himself, or his friends, by launching a challenge he might not ultimately be able to fight. But since he told the prime minister that he had no confidence in him, Streeting had to resign.
Now he hopes there will be a leadership contest – but from his letter the strong signal is that he believes Burnham should be a candidate. Perhaps Streeting will also be a candidate – and he would likely lose. But there is no real dishonour in that, after all Burnham has lost twice, and Streeting could offer Burnham the backing of his wing of the party.
There is no need for Burnham to do a deal with Streeting, really. If he ever manages to find an MP willing to stand aside to fight a byelection, or even manages to win it, he is in pole position to win anyway.
But some of the mayor’s critics in the parliamentary party are suspicious of how close he has become to the party’s left and his comments about the bond markets – which Burnham has always claimed were misinterpreted.
Even if they were wrongly construed, the bond markets remain the mayor’s biggest obstacle. MPs are genuinely worried about what a Burnham premiership might trigger in the markets, as ridiculous as that sounds.
So at some point it might become convenient again for Burnham to seek to practise what he has preached, promise an end to factionalism – and reach out across the party to the other side of the big red divide.
