Andy Burnham could trigger a “chaotic” leadership contest and an early General Election, a Labour veteran has warned.
Former deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman has expressed concern a leadership challenge to Sir Keir Starmer could see the nation “tipped into a new General Election”.
Despite the Labour peer saying she would welcome the return of Andy Burnham to Westminster, his potential leadership campaign would be “kind of chaotic”, she admitted.
Speaking to Sky News, she said: “I don’t want to say that a change of leadership is inevitable.
“I don’t want a leadership challenge, and I also don’t a general election.”
She continued: “There is a scenario in which the new leader, call him Andy Burnham for example, actually thinks, ‘I need a new mandate’ and Nigel Farage will be saying ‘well yes the country does want a new Prime Minister but they want me, they don’t want Andy Burnham, nobody’s voted for him, he’s a usurper'”.
The Labour peer suggested Mr Burnham may feel the need to seek this own electoral mandate rather than continuing Sir Keir’s agenda, particularly if he were to experience a surge in the polls if he takes over.
Therefore, he may call a General Election, she said, rather than repeat the error of Gordon Brown, who chose not to seek his own mandate despite a polling bounce when he became Prime Minister – a decision widely seen as the beginning of his political decline.
Defending why she thinks a leadership contest would be a bad idea, Baroness Harman added: “Stability is such a kind of fusty and unsexy proposition. But actually, I think people just want to get on with their lives, get on with their businesses, get on with things.
