Is Andy Burnham Really Going To Challenge Keir Starmer?
Newscast
BBC
4.4 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 25 September 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Andy Burnham has said he’s ready to support the Prime Minister and the government in forming a “proper plan to beat Reform”. His latest comments follow several interviews over the last few days which have been taken as a sign that he might be interested in challenging Sir Keir Starmer for labour party leadership and Prime Minister.
Adam is joined by Henry and Tony Diver, associate political editor at the Telegraph who spoke to Andy Burnham yesterday.
Plus, the government says it has yet to decide if and how it will help Jaguar Land Rover and it’s associated companies after a massive cyber attack brought production to a stand still. Simon Jack joins Adam to explore the options on the table.
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Transcript
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| 0:57.4 | Henry Zafman is here. Hello, Henry. Hello, Adam. Can I just say, watching you and Chris Mason outside checkers for that state visit last week, everyone looked like a movie star with that beautiful, like, autumnal lighting, the stately home, the trees. It was brilliant. Yeah. Well, I didn't get to see myself back, but I'll take your word for it. I'll take the compliment. Yeah, because you're not vain. Yeah, exactly. I would have no, no, no, no, I know I am vain. And now that you've told me this, I am going to mine that content mercilessly for Instagram. But it's the magic, I should say, of our camera operators on the day, Stuart and co. |
| 0:58.4 | Yeah, it takes a village. It takes a village. |
| 1:00.6 | Right, so Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester is in the news today, and everyone's talking about, |
| 1:05.4 | is he launching a leadership bid, or is he just positioning himself for a future leadership bid for the Labour Party, if there ever is one? |
| 1:11.3 | And I'm just thinking, going to Liverpool next week for the Labour Party conference, |
| 1:16.0 | I remember a very similar sort of Andy Burnham circus. |
| 1:19.6 | And I think it was in about 2022, where everyone was just chasing him around because he seemed like |
| 1:24.6 | the next big thing again. |
| 1:26.6 | I mean, well, Andy Burnham's been the next |
| 1:28.1 | big thing at various different points in his political career in various different ways with |
| 1:31.6 | various different Labour leaders. But it's true that under Keir Starmer's leadership, |
| 1:35.4 | it has become a little bit of a tradition to have Andy Burnham giving his pre-conference thoughts. |
| 1:43.3 | That said, I think this takes it to another level, |
| 1:47.3 | both in how explicit he's been in entertaining publicly the possibility that he might become |
| 1:53.1 | leader and in the moment of vulnerability for Keir Stama that he's chosen to do it. And I think that's why so many |
| 2:02.4 | people in Westminster or making their way to Liverpool today, who I've been speaking to, are so |
| 2:08.8 | exercised by what he said. Right. And that's what we will focus on in the first half of this episode |
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