Andy Burnham flees conference as Mirror confronts him with Keir Starmer question

Andy Burnham has claimed there is a “climate of fear” within Labour which is stopping people from debating the direction of Government.

The Greater Manchester Mayor criticised that Labour MPs had lost the whip for trying to protect disability benefits or for voting against the two-child benefit limit.

In a direct challenge to Keir Starmer, he said debate is being “closed down” and called for “change” in how the PM is running the party.

The Mirror confronted him after he made the comments. We asked him if he wanted to be Prime Minister or Labour leader, but he dodged the questions and fled the conference site. He also refused to say whether he thought Mr Starmer was up to the job.

His comments at an event at Labour’s annual conference today came not long after he was warned by former Labour Home Secretary Alan Johnson to go and find a television camera and rule out challenging Mr Starmer for the leadership.

The ex-Cabinet minister said Mr Burnham was not doing the party or country "any favours" after he last week revealed that MPs had urged him to run for the leadership.

READ MORE: Andy Burnham given brutal leadership advice by Alan Johnson on BBC

Mr Johnson told the BBC : "When we were here in 2009 colleagues were coming to me to tell me I should stand against Gordon Brown. Here's a simple bit of advice for Andy: do what I did, go find a television camera, stand in front of it and say 'I have no intention of standing against the elected leader of our party'."

But hours later, when Mr Burnham dodged The Mirror's questions on whether he wanted to be Prime Minister or Labour leader.

It came after he told a fringe event on proportional representation that the Labour party needed to “go back to repairing the basics, housing, education, transport”. He called for a “long-term stable approach” to “reassure the bond markets and stop looking over our shoulder at them”.

He continued: “One thing I am worried about, and I think we do need to debate at this conference, in my view, is, how can you have an open debate about all of those things if there's too much of a climate of fear within our party and the way the party is being run?

“How do you get an open debate about the direction that we need to take, to reconnect with the public, if a party member is suspended for liking a tweet by another political party or a Member of Parliament loses the whip for trying to protect disability benefits or the two-child cap?

“How do you get to that point if that is the way we're doing things, where debate is being closed down, and that, to me, is what we've got to change.”

Mr Burnham insisted he wants the Labour government to be a “success”. He said he had spent much of his summer strengthening the Hillsborough bill to help the PM avoid coming to the conference in Liverpool empty-handed.

But he admitted: “But I think we need to go further, and we do need to have a debate about our direction, and I, for one, won't be shying away from that.”

He defended his interventions and, addressing those “who say that I'm speaking out purely for my own ambition”, he said he had "done nothing more than launch a debate" and was speaking out on behalf of Labour councillors, Senedd members and MSPs worried about losing their seats next year.

He added: “I am speaking out for the millions of good people around Britain who want a more hopeful direction for the country.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “We’ve got to be self-confident enough as ministers to be open to challenge, and openly debate different ideas, because it makes you stronger as a government.”

Earlier today, Mr Starmer urged his critics to give him "space" to make good on the promises he made at last year's general election.

The PM, who said he had a "five-year mandate" after Labour's thumping election victory last year, added: "I'll be judged at the end of that five years, and quite right too.

"But I just need the space to get on and do what we need to do, to do those three things above all else, but also, in a world which is more volatile than any of us have known for a very long time, to ensure that the United Kingdom is safe and secure."

Steve Rotheram - a friend of Mr Burnham - today suggested it would be "difficult" to see Mr Starmer as leader at the next election "if we carry on like this".

The Labour mayor of Liverpool City Region told LBC: "This has been the difficult period and any prime minister would have faced all of those hurdles that the Labour governments have had. If we carry on like this, then it's going to be difficult, isn't it?

"Because if we start to enter the sort of the campaign towards the 2029 election and we're miles behind, then we'd have to reassess who would be best to lead us."

He added: "But at this moment in time, yes, Keir Starmer should lead us into that election as we move out of this first phase of a Labour government into the delivery phase, because I think that's the most important part."

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