Burnham. The Road to No.10

He tried before, didn't he? Twice IIRC and couldn't get the nominations. Maybe this time he might a la Corbyn where his colleagues seek a 'fair contest' and see how that backfires on them!

Yes John McDonnell tried to run for Labour leader against Gordon Brown in 2008 and again in 2010 but failed to get on the ballot both times. Who knows what he'll do this time around ;)
 
Resist, Rebuff, Reform, Resign: Resign

It was a week after Andy's announcement speech and things weren't as rosy as I had hoped. Hilary Benn had jumped ship and decided to endorse Yvette Cooper for the leadership and Dan Jarvis had decided he would back Liz Kendall. Both were important, because the BBC had decided their endorsements were important, and Michael Dugher was furious; he blamed Torsten and I for the campaign failing to get their endorsements. Michael was desperate for us to play a safe and easy campaign but, Andy was listening to me and so long as I had his ear we were going to run an insurgent campaign and start really changing the Labour Party. However, I can't deny their decisions not to back Andy were a major disappointment but
we got lucky with the endorsements being overshadowed by the mess Fifa had got itself into.

So far the race was building up to be a three way contest: Andy, Yvette and Liz. Some people were calling for there to be more candidates in the race and Mary Creagh had announced her decision to run, but many thought it was unlikely that she would get the required number of MPs to stand. Rumours reached me on the 1st of June that Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell were trying to decide which one of them should run as the "hard-left's" candidate. I was alot more worried about the hard left than I was about Creagh, but I knew that in the end neither really mattered if we couldn't get Andy's campaign to start inspiring people. We had plans to launch Andy's integration of the NHS and Social Care plan at the weekend and his plans to change tuition fees into a graduate tax the week after, but I knew none would truly inspire the many people on the disenfranchised left of the party that had taken Ed Miliband to victory.

By Friday the 5th of June Corbyn had announced and Mary Creagh looked certain to drop out. In a moment of interest had decided to attend Corbyn's launch event and part of me was slightly inspired. He talked with such clarity and passion for those simple ideas like re-nationalising the railways and opposing the Government's austerity measures that I just knew would resonate with the rapidly growing number of young Labour party members. I knew Andy would never be able to compete with that style of simplicity that Corbyn offered, that just wasn't Andy's style. Andy was as socialist and left wing as the country could want but he always wanted to be seen by the class of "Guardian readers" as an intellectual. It was at that moment on the 5th that I knew what we were going to need to do to win the race. Corbyn would make this race about utopian vision, Liz would make this about centrising the party and Yvette would make it about policy; so to win Andy needed to win on all these front and he couldn't do it alone. He needed a running mate.

*****

Sunday, 7th of June. I was sitting in our London campaign offices and the place had been emptied as Andy had just finished doing Marr and we wanted to fill out the room for his big speech on integrating the NHS and Social Care in Poplar. Michael, Sam and John were the key staffers at the event but I had held Katy, Torsten and Sarah back to talk about my running mate idea. All three of them came into my office to see a board filled with images of some of the MPs I thought we would need to convince to join Andy's ticket. Katy and Torsten thought it was a brilliant idea and after a while of chatting Sarah eventually came around to the idea. We spent the next few hours tossing out names and crossing people off our list.

Katy loved the idea of a male-female ticket and was really pushing Stella Creasy, and it made alot of sense from a visual stance. Both were on the left of the party, Stella was a rising star and I knew her and Sam would work very well together from a digital perspective. Torsten was arguing for someone with a serious policy brain like Angela Eagle, Pat McFadden or Derek Twigg, but that was totally the opposite of what I knew Andy needed. Sarah often was the one eliminating people on the basis she knew that Andy wouldn't work well with like Emma Reynolds and Sir Keir Starmer. But while all their ideas and nominations had merit I just knew that it wasn't what Andy was needing. He needed his own version of a Jeremy Corbyn, someone with whom the left knew was 'their guy' and could talk about re-nationalisation and anti-austerity with everyone truly believing that was what they were all about. Then as I skimmed the board of MPs I found it...

Me:
I know who is going to help Andy win this race...

*****

On the evening of the 9th I gathered everyone in my office in Westminster and asked that Andy attend. Michael was angry about being summoned but I just ignored it because his attitude only going to get worse as the night went on. I had already spoken with Torsten and Sarah to get them to sign off on my choice as Andy's running mate, it took some doing but they eventually came around to my way of thinking. I decided to let Katy find out the same time as the rest to get a real reaction and let me know if I was being truly crazy or just crazy enough. Andy eventually arrived confused as to why everyone was here and what exactly I wanted to talk about, but took a seat and seemed willing to listen.

So I read them out my proposal, I showed them the crowds that Corbyn was starting to get and reminded Andy of the reaction Corbyn got at the event outside Parliament from the night before. Michael and John were of course against the idea, "this is not an american election" they shouted but I just powered through as I knew it was going to get alot worse when I mentioned by choice of running mate, but before I could even get half way through Andy stops me.

Andy Burnham:
Wait. Who is it exactly you want me to run with for the leadership?


Me:
Ian Lavery...

Michael Dugher:
Ian F***ing Lavery. You want to make Arthur Scargill's successor the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party!? Are you off your f***ing rocker man! I mean seriously what the f***ing f*** are you thinking.

It went on like that for a bit from Michael and he had a good point. Ian was a former president of the mineworkers union and certainly was on the hard left of the party. Many in the party still argue that it is the legacy of Scargill that gives left wing politics a bad name in middle England and makes it so difficult for Labour to make head ways in the South of England, but it is that background that makes him just an attractive option. Andy was trying to run an insurgent transformation campaign but with Corbyn in the race he looked just to much like Liz and Yvette. He was looking like the natural evolution from Miliband, not a new page on the Labour party. With Ian on a ticket with Andy he could be both transformation and sensible, wear his heart on his sleeve and appeal to the "Guardian intellectuals", inspire every section of the Labour family.

The argument went on for a good few hours with Michael continuing to get more and more furious as the time went on but Andy remained surprisingly quiet. To my shock both John and Katy came around to my way of thinking and Sam loved the idea as he saw it as a way to free him on Social Media. Sarah said very little and Torsten mainly rebutted Michael because he simply wanted to frustrate the man but my full attention was on Andy. He sat there for quite a while listening to the arguments and how the room was going very much against Michael but I knew Andy would be taking Michael's warning very seriously. Taking a side in the Deputy contest would be dangerous, would turn people like Angela Eagle, Tom Watson and Rushanara Ali against the campaign and could well alienate some of the more centrists MPs waiting to back candidates. Not only that we could potentially be opening the pandora's box of the Scargill era of mass strikes and I wasn't sure if Andy could win a race with that much negative PR.

However I was convinced that if we continued they way we were going we would either lose to the simplicity of Jeremy Corbyn or to the overwhelming centrism of Cooper and Kendall. We needed to throw out the ace card and start making waves. Or else we were done.

Michael Dugher:
Andy if you do this I'm done. I am telling you right now, I will not lock myself to Ian Lavery.

Andy Burnham:
Ok, thanks Michael. I will speak to you tomorrow but they are right. Call Ian, lets meet him tomorrow and if he agrees we are doing this.

*****

The next morning I got into the office and sitting on Andy's desk was Michael's resignation note.

Dear Andy,

I cannot continue to serve as your campaign manager if you indeed intend to run with Ian. So please accept this as notification that I have resigned as your campaign manager. I will continue to support your campaign to be the Leader of the Labour Party but I will be now running for Deputy Leader with the express purpose of stopping Ian from reaching such a serious position within the party.



Notes:

Yvette Cooper (46): Jon Ashworth, Ian Austin, Adrian Bailey, Roberta Blackman-Woods, Lyn Brown, Nick Brown, Chris Bryant, Karen Buck, Richard Burden, Vernon Coaker, Judith Cummins, Jim Cunningham, Nic Dakin, Geraint Davies, Jim Fitzpatrick, Colleen Fletcher, Vicky Foxcroft, Helen Goodman, Kate Green, Fabian Hamilton, David Hanson, Sue Hayman, Sharon Hodgson, George Howarth, Diana Johnson, Kevan Jones, Helen Jones, Chris Leslie, Khalid Mahmood, Shabana Mahmood, Seema Malhotra, John Mann, Steve McCabe, Catherine McKinnell, Melanie Onn, Matthew Pennycook, Jess Phillips, Bridget Phillipson, Marie Rimmer, Geoffrey Robinson, Naz Shah, Virendra Sharma, Paula Sherriff, Ruth Smeeth, Karin Smyth

Andy Burnham (41): Debbie Abrahams,David Anderson, Luciana Berger, Clive Betts, Paul Blomfield, Kevin Brennan, Julie Cooper, David Crausby, Alex Cunningham, Wayne David, Peter Dowd, Michael Dugher, Bill Esterson, Paul Farrelly, Rob Flello, Yvonne Fovargue, Pat Glass, Mary Glindon,Andrew Gwynne, Harry Harpham, Carolyn Harris, Stephen Hepburn,Graham Jones, Gerald Jones, Barbara Keeley, Ian Lavery,Holly Lynch, Justin Madders, Rachael Maskell, Chris Matheson, Andy McDonald,Alan Meale, Ian Mearns, Albert Owen, Teresa Pearce, Jeff Smith,Anna Turley, Karl Turner, Derek Twigg, Valerie Vaz, Alan Whitehead

Liz Kendall (30): Sir Kevin Barron, Tom Blenkinsop, Jenny Chapman, Ann Coffey, Simon Danczuk, Stephen Doughty, Jim Dowd, Julie Elliott, Louise Ellman, Mike Gapes, Mark Hendrick, Margaret Hodge, Tristram Hunt, Peter Kyle, Fiona Mactaggart, Alison McGovern, Toby Perkins, Steve Reed, Jonathan Reynolds, Emma Reynolds, Joan Ryan, Barry Sheerman, Gavin Shuker, Nick Smith, Wes Streeting, Stephen Timms, Chuka Umunna, Phil Wilson, John Woodcock

Jeremy Corbyn (21): Diane Abbott, Ronnie Campbell, Jon Cruddas, Clive Efford, Louise Haigh, Kelvin Hopkins, Rupa Huq, Imran Hussain, Clive Lewis, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Gordon Marsden, John McDonnell, Michael Meacher, Grahame Morris, Chi Onwurah, Dennis Skinner, Andrew Smith, Cat Smith, Jon Trickett, Catherine West

Mary Creagh (10): Sarah Champion, Jo Cox, Neil Coyle, Thangam Debbonaire, Helen Hayes, Susan Elan Jones, Mike Kane, Stephen Kinnock, Tulip Siddiq

*The support of 35 MPs is required to make it onto the leadership ballot

Ben Bradshaw, MP for Exeter
Stella Creasy, Shadow Business Minister and MP for Walthamstow
Michael Dugher, Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and MP for Barnsley East
Angela Eagle, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons and MP for Wallasey
Caroline Flint, Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change and MP for Don Valley
John Healey,MP for Wentworth and Dearne
Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East
 
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