STORY
Harriet Harman has warned that Britain could be “tipped into a general election” if Andy Burnham were to replace Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. The former Labour deputy leader said Burnham could come under pressure to seek his own mandate from voters if he entered Parliament, won a future Labour leadership contest and became Prime Minister. Speaking at the Hay literary festival, she said opponents such as Nigel Farage could argue that Burnham was a “usurper” if he entered Downing Street without a General Election.
Harman said she supported Burnham returning to Westminster, but did not want to see either a leadership contest or another election. Her comments come ahead of the Makerfield by-election on 18 June, where Burnham is Labour’s candidate and where the result is being closely watched because of wider speculation about Starmer’s leadership.
She compared the situation with Gordon Brown’s decision not to call an election after succeeding Tony Blair in 2007, a choice later widely judged within Labour to have been a mistake. Harman said the public wanted political stability and rejected suggestions that Britain was ungovernable, but acknowledged that any change of Prime Minister in the current political climate could rapidly create pressure for a fresh national vote.