Does Labour’s Leadership Race Mean A Battle Over Brexit?
Newscast
BBC
4.3 • 6.6K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In a speech at which he confirmed he would run to become Labour leader, Wes Streeting has said that he would ‘one day’ like the UK to rejoin the EU.
Greater Manchester Mayor, who also wants to run, Andy Burnham has said similar things in the past, he’d first have to win a by-election in Makerfield - an area that voted to leave.
So, are Labour going to go to war over the issue again? Does it put Burnham in a tricky position? And is it what the public wants?
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Newscast brings you daily analysis of the latest political news stories from the BBC. The presenters were Laura Kuenssberg and Paddy O'Connell. It was made by Chris Flynn and Adam Chowdhury. The social producer was Grace Braddock. The technical producer was Gareth Jones. The assistant editor is Chris Gray. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:06.1 | We have a group WhatsApp. |
| 0:08.0 | We do. |
| 0:08.5 | Last night during Eurovision, Henry Zephman posted a weird, nerdy, geeky piece of old thing. |
| 0:16.2 | A piece of old... |
| 0:17.8 | A piece of old thing. |
| 0:19.7 | So when he should have been concentrating on sequins and tiaras and very strange European dance anthems, Henry gave us an excellent piece of political trivia. The 1963 Kinross in Western Perthshire by-election. I'll just say it was about another Prime Minister who needed to |
| 0:38.4 | be in the House of Commons rather than the House of Lords. And this was pointed to us by one H-Z. |
| 0:44.3 | So H-Z, why is that pertinent now? Well, because I know how to live it up on a Saturday night, |
| 0:49.2 | I was listening to yesterday's newscast rather than watching Eurovision, of which I'm not a massive fan, I have to confess. |
| 0:55.2 | And I heard your excellent discussion of Patrick Gordon Walker in 1964, in which a by-election settled whether he got, 65, sorry, after the 1964 general election got to settle whether he became or remained rather Harold Wilson's |
| 1:12.4 | foreign secretary or not but I thought hang on a couple of years earlier there was an even bigger |
| 1:17.3 | by-election because Alec Douglas hume as the earl of hume had become the prime minister and he |
| 1:23.8 | decided that you couldn't in that day and age be prime minister from the House of Lords. |
| 1:29.1 | So he disclaimed his earldom to become an MP. |
| 1:33.3 | So for a few weeks he was Prime Minister without sitting in either House of Parliament. |
| 1:37.2 | And he said, I'm going to fight this by-election and become Prime Minister from the House of Commons. |
| 1:42.7 | Now, he actually won by Miles. |
| 1:46.7 | But presumably, if he had lost the by-election, |
| 1:50.0 | that would have meant that after a few weeks they'd have had to resign as Prime Minister. |
| 1:56.1 | So to me, that is a kind of reverse Andy Burnham, where if he wins this Makerfield by-election, |
| 1:59.6 | he gets to become Prime Minister, at least in the eyes of many in the Labour Party. |
... |
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