Minister defends blocking Burnham from byelection race to avoid ‘unnecessary’ mayoral contest – UK politics live

Douglas Alexander says that a campaign in Greater Manchester would have ‘a substantial and disproportionate impact’ on party resourcesGood morning. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, will this afternoon announce a huge police reform package (which the Home Office has been briefing out, item by item, for the past few days) but, not for the first time, an internal Labour party crisis is attracting more interest and comment than a government policy initiative.Here is Peter Walker’s overnight story about Labour’s decision to ban Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, from being a candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, the backlash against the move in the party, and the possible consequences.The NEC [national executive committee] believes that causing an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester Mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources ahead of the local elections and elections to the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Senedd in May. Although the party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any risk.We would certainly have fought that contest hard, but there would have been some degree of risk – Reform are outspending us about 10-to-one at the moment and in the biggest and most unnecessary electoral contest in England, you can never take anything for granted. That doesn’t strike me as a risk-free choice. Continue reading...