Andy Burnham Would 'Probably' Have Won Gorton and Denton Byelection, States Labour Number Two

Labour's deputy leader has indicated that Andy Burnham could have won the recent Manchester byelection, while she urged her party to make more use of the influential Greater Manchester mayor.

An Unexpected Result for the Greens

Overcoming a sizable 13,000-vote Labour majority from the previous general election, a local Green councillor, a local plumber, became the party's fifth MP on Friday. This happened in an area that had consistently returned Labour MPs for nearly a century.

Reform UK's Matt Goodwin placed second, narrowly beating the Labour candidate, Angeliki Stogia.

Renewed Scrutiny Over Candidate Decision

The unexpected outcome has sparked renewed questioning of the party's choice to prevent Andy Burnham from contesting the seat last month.

In an interview with the BBC, Labour's deputy leader, Lucy Powell, stated, "Andy Burnham probably would have held the seat. I think definitely the Greens wouldn't have gone after the seat in the manner that they did."

Powell was the only member of Labour's top decision-making body to support allowing Burnham to stand, with the majority, including leader Keir Starmer, opposing the move.

Collective Decision

However, she stated she understood "collective responsibility" for the outcome, pointing to worries over triggering a separate election in Greater Manchester.

Powell also stressed that her party needed to draw inspiration from the reasons for Burnham's widespread popularity in the region. She said people "see in him someone who is fighting for them, someone who is delivering those Labour values and Labour policies."

"We have to utilise that insight, leverage Andy Burnham, but also learn from it and consider how we could do that better nationally," she continued.

Future Speculation

Andy Burnham is understood not to have ruled out having another go at returning to parliament. One ally commented, "Given the current political climate, who knows what might happen. It would be unwise to say he would never."

To date, Burnham himself has yet to comment on the Gorton and Denton outcome. Meanwhile, Keir Starmer has vowed to fight on despite labelling the poll result "disappointing."

Internal Reactions

Angela Rayner, a prominent voice on Labour's left, described the byelection result "a wake-up call" for the party.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary is expected to caution about the party moving to the left in response to the defeat. This comes as she introduces new laws on tougher immigration measures next week.

An insider was quoted as saying, "The Labour government should not misinterpret the message from its recent byelection loss. The idea that we are losing Muslim voters over immigration is simply incorrect."