Speculation is growing that Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham could become MP for Camberwell and Peckham, allowing him to bid for the Labour leadership, if Keir Starmer resigns over alleged lockdown breaches.
Labour leader Keir Starmer has promised to resign if police fine him for the beer and curry work break, held at the City of Durham MP Mary Foy’s office, on April 30 2021. Back then, lockdown rules banned all indoor gatherings with people from outside your household or support bubble, except for “work purposes”.
Should Starmer resign, Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham is the bookies’ favourite to replace him. But under the UK’s electoral rules, only a standing MP can become Prime Minister, which Burnham currently is not.
With MP for Camberwell and Peckham, and Mother of the House, Harriet Harman standing down at the next election, a recent national newspaper article suggested she could resign early to make way for Burnham. As a safe Labour seat, the position is considered prime electoral real estate.
But it could prove a controversial move for Burnham, who said in an interview recently, that he’d “fallen out of love” with Westminster because it “made a fraud out of people”. Any move to a London constituency could be seen as a betrayal of his responsibilities to the north of England.
An anonymous Labour source told the News they felt it was unlikely that Starmer’s office would engineer for Burnham to become MP for the South London constituency, as they would probably prefer to see Wes Streeting take over from Starmer.
Andy Burnham does have a connection to Southwark. After university, he worked as a researcher for the late Tessa Jowell, then Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, who served in the Labour cabinet for eight years.
Andy Burnham and Harriet Harman have both been approached for comment.
Not to be funny but all this mp that want this job is full of shit ,what does they know what people of peckham and camberwell and nunhead need as they don’t really understand the people of the community, they ain’t been in the same situation and the normal Joe who ,have to work five days a week and live on what they get from the job they do and hope and the end of the month that they can give them child or children a surprise, like a trip to the seaside, all the mp might live in the Borough but do I really understand the people who live in it and what they need because I don’t think so ,so put that to all the mps and ask them that.