Andy Burnham, the Labour mayor of Greater Manchester, last year co-wrote a book on politics in England’s northwest. It was called Head North.
Now, as the former MP is linked to a potential challenge to embattled UK prime minister Keir Starmer, Burnham is wondering aloud if he should head south again.
After days of public posturing by Burnham over the leadership this week, Starmer knocked the story off the front pages of UK papers on Friday by announcing a plan to bring in mandatory so-called “Britcard” digital identification for Britons.
Yet as a febrile and divided Labour Party heads into its annual conference in Liverpool on Sunday, the question of Starmer’s leadership is sure to quickly return to the fore.
Burnham, the vaunted “king of the north”, is wildly popular in Manchester and viewed by some as Labour’s prince across the water. While a growing number of MPs believe he wants to return to Westminster, could he really unseat the prime minister just 14 months after Keir Starmer led Labour to a landslide election win?
[ Labour’s ‘King of the North’ highlights growing problem facing Keir StarmerOpens in new window ]
Or, as some senior party figures believe, could the Manchester mayor’s shape-throwing in
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