by Atul Hatwal
The headlines about the NEC blocking Andy Burnham’s candidacy for Gorton and Denton are about a ruthless, factional hit. That it was. But it didn’t have to be this way. Losing by 8 votes to 1 tells a tale of an quixotic leadership effort that had not done the essential prework required to secure the support of the only voters that mattered: the NEC officer group.
Three votes went against Andy Burnham that he could reasonably have expected to win, regardless of how Labour leadership representatives voted.
NEC Vice Chair, Peter Wheeler is a councillor in the Northwest (Cheshire West) and is well known to Andy Burnham, personally and professionally. In several putative vote tallies on Friday, he was viewed as a potential Burnham backer.
The GMB and Usdaw representatives were subject to strenuous lobbying from both sides, within and without their unions. Once again, having ready answers for inevitable questions on the Manchester Mayoral election and finance, as well as some explicit commitments for what a Burnham leadership would have offered these unions, could have won them over.
