Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election. The vote this morning by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) was not even close, with the ten-man panel voting eight to one against allowing him to stand. Lucy Powell, Labour’s deputy leader, was the only to vote for him; Shabana Mahmood, as chair, chose to abstain. The fact that she and other potential candidates for the Labour leadership like Ed Miliband have been so unwilling to criticise Burnham personally suggests that they think a contest is coming sooner, rather than later.

In a statement, the Labour party said that ‘an unnecessary election for the position of Greater Manchester Mayor would have a substantial and disproportionate impact on party campaign resources’ ahead of the forthcoming local election. Labour goes on to insist that while ‘the party would be confident of retaining the mayoralty, the NEC could not put Labour’s control of Greater Manchester at any........

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