Andy Burnham could be the answer to Labour’s difficulties, former defence secretary Geoff Hoon has said.
Asked if Burnham was the right person to fix the party’s problems, Hoon told GB News: “Well, he might be. I think what’s important is to allow the facts that I set out to unwind to see what happens, assuming that he is elected in Makerfield.
“There will then be, I’m sure, more speculation about a leadership challenge and so on. But I think it’s important that we don’t get ahead of ourselves.
“We have a prime minister, we have a government, and they rightly need to go on governing the country, that’s their job day to day, and we need to allow them to do that job.”
Hoon dismissed a suggestion that Wes Streeting is seeking to sabotage Burnham with his stance on Europe: “I don’t accept that for a moment.
“Wes Streeting has just resigned from the cabinet on a question of principle, he disagrees with the direction of Keir Starmer’s government and has chosen to resign from a very high-profile, important position.
“In those circumstances, what comes with resignation is the freedom to speak out, and it’s hardly surprising that he chooses to set out his views at this stage after such a high-profile resignation.”
He also said that Sir Keir Starmer should not have to set out a timetable for stepping down: “I don’t accept that.
“The Prime Minister, less than two years ago, won an overwhelming mandate from the British people to govern.”
Hoon also suggested Britain’s first-past-the-post system may no longer be fit for purpose “It [Labour’s win] was overwhelming in our parliamentary democratic system. We may have a discussion, perhaps on another occasion, about whether those arrangements currently fit the purpose of a society that has now a number of different political parties rather than simply two main ones.
“That’s a debate for another day, but undoubtedly, in terms of our present rules, he won an overwhelming majority in the House of Commons.”
