Starmer’s management rival Andy Burnham ‘blocked’ from MP by-election amid takeover fears

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Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, according to sources close to Labour’s National Executive Committee.

NEC sources told the Press Association there had been a “very clear majority” against allowing Mr Burnham from applying for selection in the seat due to concerns about the cost of fighting a mayoral by-election in Greater Manchester.

The decision was made by a 10-strong sub-group of the NEC, chaired by the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Sunday morning.

Blocking Burnham is likely to provoke anger from some parts of the Labour Party after several senior figures called for local members to have the final say on whether he should stand.

They included deputy leader Lucy Powell, herself an NEC member, and Cabinet minister Ed Miliband, who had both told a conference in London on Saturday that the decision should be left to members.

Earlier today, Mahmood said it was “normal practice” for selection matters to be decided by the officers of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), rather than the full ruling body.

Responding to calls for the decision to be made by the full group, Mahmood told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: “I’ve been on the national executive for 10 years now, so I have a high regard for the technical rules of the Labour Party.

“And what I would say is on lots of these decisions, which are usually made by NEC officers, not always the full National Executive Committee, it is not unusual for some members of the full national executive to say, we think the decision should have been made here, rather than by officers.

“But for selections, it is very normal practice.

“And I say this as somebody who was on the NEC when it was led by Jeremy Corbyn. It’s normal practice for selection procedures to be done by the NEC officers.”

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