Labour’s impulse for political self-harm defies belief. It is as if some enemy within guides it unerringly along the wrong strategic path. Declaring war on Andy Burnham anoints him as a northern martyr and hero, and casts Keir Starmer as a coward. Many opposed Burnham throwing down the gauntlet for all the problems it would have caused if he won. If he had run, and won, Starmer would have a choice: squeeze him python-tight within the fold, or confront any leadership manoeuvring head on. Instead, before he could show any strength, he funked it, using evasive proceduralism to block his rival from the byelection in Gorton and Denton.

What timing for this decision! Starmer, along with his chancellor, business secretary and other chief allies are due to depart for China on Tuesday: his absence from PMQs, from the weekly parliamentary Labour party meeting and from TV studios is a blunder.

Why this provocation when obstacles aplenty were already in Burnham’s way, with no easy route to No 10? Even those who are not particularly his supporters see how boldly he was ready to hazard his political career on an uncertain byelection at a time of wild political volatility. He could have lost to Reform or to the Greens, or been hindered by a pro-Gaza independent, and that would have finished him politically. But he had a good chance of winning: now, if that seat gifts Nigel Farage his ninth MP, excoriating blame will fall on Starmer.

The byelection to replace Burnham as Manchester mayor would indeed have been mortally dangerous: a Reform win would have been a disaster, not just for Labour but for the future of the country. Anger at that needless loss........

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