Minister says Starmer’s decision to run in a leadership contest is personal. 12 minutes agoBecky MortonPolitical reporterPA MediaIt’s a “personal choice” for Sir Keir Starmer to decide whether or not he runs in a leadership contest. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said. She said that Andy Burnham should be “back at the center of power in Parliament” if he wins the Makerfield by-election. The race to replace Starmer has begun, but he faces a difficult decision. If I did, I wouldn’t have been in his cabinet. “I think we were elected to end the chaos,” she said. Pressed on whether she thought Sir Keir would run in any leadership competition, the culture minister said: “He has said that he will.” She added: “It is a very individual decision for him. “I haven’t spoken to he this weekend, but I’ve spoken to he several times over the past week and he has shown before that he is up for a battle. She said that the disastrous election results last week showed “people don’t feel like they’ve seen enough fight from us”.She also added: “We’ve fought for the people, but the message is clear, they want us on the pitch, fighting harder, talking louder, and doing more. “Nandy was out in Makerfield with Burnham on Saturday and said: “We heard that loudly and clearly. “People want this and they want voices of our part of the nation and of all those parts of the county that have been ignored for too long to become heard louder and clearly at the heart of government. The National Executive Committee of Labour, which had previously blocked Burnham from standing in a January by-election, has now cleared him to run as Labour’s candidate for Makerfield. This comes after Labour MP Josh Simons announced he would resign in order to make way for Burnham. Meanwhile, Nigel Farage’ She added: “That is why I do not apologize for saying that he’s a really important voice at Westminster that needs to be heard clearly and loudly.” “Simons said that it would be “existential for the Labour Party” if it lost in the Makerfield by election. He said the contest was about “a fundamental question for my Party, which is whether they can win back the confidence of working-class citizens”. “If that answer is yes, I think we can have a moment of unity and coming together across the different traditions within my party,” he said. However, Conservative leader Kemi Bdenoch said: “It does not matter whether Andy Burnham or Keir starmer, the Labour Party is the problem.” Burnham, the ‘King Of The North’, has his sights set on the top job. Nandy said that while she campaigned for Remain in the 2016 referendum, “if the answer to all of this was the European Union, then essentially we’d be saying to people what was going on in 2015 in towns like Wigan was absolutely fine”.
