Andy Burnham predicted to steal support from Green Party with lurch left if he topples Keir Starmer

Andy Burnham has been predicted to steal support from the Green Party if he succeeds Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.

The newly elected MP for Makefield is expected to launch a leadership bid upon his return to Westminster.

Despite pledges to keep members of the right of Labour, including Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, some commentators have suggested that a Mr Burnham premiership would represent a lurch to the left for the Government.

Speaking to GB News, Political Correspondent at the New Statesman, Megan Kenyon predicted that such a development could render left-wing parties like the Greens “less potent”.

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GB News host Charlie Peters asked: “Do you get a sense from those figures that there might be a pull from the left of British politics back towards Labour?

“If Andy Burnham comes in, could those figures in those parties or supporters who've left Labour return?”

“I think if you look at the result in Makerfield, the Greens ran a very pared-back campaign, but they only won 0.7 per cent of the vote and lost their deposit,” Ms Kenyon said.

“I think that what we've seen with (Green Party leader) Zack Polanski, the message he was offering is one of making hope normal again.

“Andy Burnham, A lot of the language he was using was around hope. It is very similar to what Mr Polanski was offering, and there are policy similarities as well.

She suggested that “disaffected Labour voters who may have lent their votes to the Greens” could return under Mr Burnham.

“I think for sure we will see a difficult dynamic for the Greens now.

“They're briefing that they're going to go all out in this Greater Manchester by-election.

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“I think if Andy Burnham is leading the Labour Party in the next couple of months, we could definitely see less potency there,” Ms Kenyon predicted.

The political correspondent said that Mr Burnham would need to strike a “fine balance” between the left and right of Labour.

“I think he's got a very difficult sort of battle ahead to sort of maintain that broad tent of the parliamentary Labour Party.

“That is something Keir Starmer has not managed to do very well.”

“I think there's a world in which the Labour Party repositions itself back to the broad tent that it was maybe under someone like Tony Blair.

“He had Clare Short in his Cabinet. Obviously, she eventually resigned, but he was able to keep some of those soft-left figures onside.

“This was as well as people on the right of the party and from that New Labour tradition he himself came from.

“So it's not impossible, but it's going to be difficult,” Ms Kenyon predicted.

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