Exclusive poll: Let Burnham stand, voters say
Over half of voters in Manchester think Labour is wrong to stop Andy Burnham standing as a Labour candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election and 62 per cent say he should be allowed to run as the party’s candidate in the seat.
New polling of Greater Manchester residents, exclusive to the New Statesman, shows widespread public opposition to the decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) on Sunday to bar the city region’s mayor from standing in the seat.
Some 54 per cent said it would be “wrong” for the party to block Burnham standing in the by-election while 8 per cent said it would be “right”. Thirty-nine per cent were undecided.
The polling was carried out by FindOutNow on behalf of the BetterWorld Ltd. The fieldwork took place over Friday, Saturday and Sunday with a sample size of 1,000 residents of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority area.
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When asked whether blocking Burnham from standing would demonstrate strength or weakness from the leadership of the party, 50 per cent said it would show weakness while 5 per cent said it would show strength. Asked if the move would change their perceptions of Labour, 33 per cent said it would make them less likely to support the party (41 per cent said it would make no difference).
On Sunday morning a subcommittee of the NEC voted eight to one to deny Burnham permission to seek selection as the Labour candidate in the seat after its current MP, Andrew Gwynne, stepped down.
Burnham would have had to resign as mayor in order to contest the Westminster by-election, triggering a mayoral by-election in Manchester to find a successor.
In a statement explaining the NEC’s decision, the Labour Party said blocking Burnham would “avoid an unnecessary mayoral election, which would use substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money and resources that are better spent tackling the cost-of-living crisis”.
The polling shows little public agreement in Manchester with the reasons offered by the NEC.
Just 7 per cent of Mancunians polled agreed that a mayoral by-election as a result of Burnham an MP would be “an unnecessary cost and inconvenience to the people of Manchester”.
Some 62 per cent agreed instead with the statement: “Andy Burnham should be free to seek selection as an MP. It is up to the people of Gorton and Denton to then decide whether they want to vote him into Parliament, not the national Labour party.”
Asked about the motivations for attempts to block Burnham, 53 per cent of respondents agreed with the statement: “Labour are putting petty personal or factional politics before the interests of Manchester and the country”.
Just 4 per cent agreed that such a move showed that “Labour are putting the interests of Manchester and the country first, and other considerations second”.
It is also the latest poll to show that Labour could perform better in the by-election if Burnham were the candidate.
Asked how they would vote in an election tomorrow, just 15 per cent said they would vote for the Labour party. Reform scored 22 per cent, putting them in first place among the Manchester voters, with another 22 per cent saying they don’t know how they would vote.
However when asked to imagine an election in which Burnham was their local Labour candidate, the polling shows the numbers flipping. Labour attracts 32 per cent of the vote with Reform being pushed back to 18 per cent and “don’t knows” also on 18 per cent.
While the party will say that its decision on the matter is final, there is now political pressure building for Burnham to be allowed to stand. These numbers will no doubt provide ammunition to those who still think Burnham should be Labour’s candidate in Gorton and Denton.
[Further reading: Blocking Andy Burnham leaves Keir Starmer isolated]
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