This is The Guardian.

Specifically on Brexit, are you in favour of rejoining the European Union?

I've said in the long term there is a case for that, but I'm not advocating that in this by election.

Are you going to step up and contest the Labour leadership?

John, we need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field and I'll be standing.

This by-election is about a Labour crisis, not a national crisis.

Kirstarman may go, Andy Burnham, may replace him.

Nothing's going to change for the next three years.

Is there a chance that he might set at a timetable to leave?

Let me be really clear.

Kier Stama remains the most resilient person I know in my life.

This is Kieran Stacey.

This is Peter Walker.

And you're listening to Politics Weekly

for The Guardian. I'm joined by Peter this week. Hello. Instead of Pippa, who is away

somewhere at a secret location on a leadership away day. So thank you very much for joining us.

Pleasure. Always always good. So much has happened over the last few days. It's difficult to know sometimes what was the moment at which everything changed, but something has changed. And as we're sitting here today on Monday morning in Westminster, the feeling is that Andy Burnham is going to be Prime Minister by the autumn. I mean, that has now become the default assumption. You talk to Labour MPs, you talk to

members of other parties. They all assume that Andy Berdom is going to be Prime Minister. And for me,

the moment that shifted was when Labor's ruling National Executive Committee didn't put up any

resistance to him fighting that by-election. Of course, it was the NEC which stopped him fighting

in Gorton and Denton. Yeah. This time around, lay down and said, okay, fair enough, and he can run. And from that moment, it just became assumed that A, he would be selected as the candidate, B, he would win the seat. C, he would immediately challenge Keir Stammer. A lot of steps. And D, become Prime Minister. And that is a lot of steps. and I was talking to people, I was working yesterday, and I was talking to people over the weekend,

and asking them, you know, what assumptions have we made in Westminster that you think we might have got wrong? Yeah. And one thing that came back a lot, particularly from people up in Greater Manchester and anywhere around Wigan, was we don't think that by election is as certain as you guys seem to.

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