Andy Burnham hit out at a “climate of fear” in Labour as he called for a “debate on our direction” on the first day of the party’s conference in Liverpool.
The Greater Manchester mayor was greeted with multiple rounds of applause as he criticised the Labour leadership’s handling of dissent, attacking a situation where party members were “suspended for liking a tweet by another political party” or “a Member of Parliament loses the whip for trying to protect disability benefits”.
He said: “One thing I am worried about, and I think we do need to debate at this conference in my view, is how can you have an open debate about all of those things if there’s too much of a climate of fear within our party and the way the party is being run.”
The build-up to Labour’s annual conference has been dominated by questions about Sir Keir Starmer’s future and whether Mr Burnham could seek to topple him as party leader.
But speaking to a conference fringe event on electoral reform, he insisted he was there “to support the Government” and wanted the Prime Minister to succeed.
Mr Burnham said: “I’ve been accused of all things in the last week, as you can probably see.
“I’ve done nothing more than launch a debate.”
But he sounded a warning about the direction of the party, saying he was speaking out for the “thousands of councillors at this conference who are worried about going to those doorsteps next May”, along with members of the Senedd and Scottish Parliament.
Mr Burnham said: “I feel very strongly that the next election, whenever it comes, is in many ways not going to be the traditional line-up of the parties, and which one do you want?
“I feel we’re heading towards an election that is a choice of two world views: our view, the progressive view, the values that have shaped the country that we’ve always known and always lived in, or something much darker and very divisive.”
Speaking out against demands for “simplistic statements of loyalty”, he added: “If that closes down the debate we need, I think it’s at risk of underestimating the peril the party is in as we get to the polls next May.”
Mr Burnham had entered the fringe event, one of only a small number he is scheduled to appear at, surrounded by photographers, and delivered a much wider-ranging speech than previous speakers who had confined themselves to electoral reform.
He called for a greater focus on council housing, saying the money allocated to housebuilding at the spending review should be entirely devoted to social and council homes.
And Mr Burnham hit back at those who had criticised him over comments saying the country should be “less in hock to the bond markets”, arguing that a more consensual approach to politics would provide long-term stability and “reassure” those markets.
Elsewhere on the conference fringe on Sunday, former leader Ed Miliband said Mr Burnham was a “talented guy” but insisted he was fully behind Sir Keir’s leadership.
The Energy Secretary said: “I am very, very clear with you about this. Keir is my friend, my long-standing friend, and I’m Keir’s guy, right? I’m for Keir. So if you ask me a leadership question, I’m not interested.”
But he added: “We are best when we’re a broad church, and we use talent from right across the Labour Party. And, you know, Andy’s a really talented guy.”
Mr Miliband said “definitely not” in response to suggestions he was planning his own comeback as leader, saying he realised after defeat in 2015 that he would not be prime minister but could still fight for his ideas without being in No 10.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting told a conference fringe event organised by think tank Labour Together: “We’ve got to be self-confident enough as ministers to be open to challenge, and openly debate different ideas, because it makes you stronger as a Government.”
Arguing that Labour must have “the humility to listen”, Mr Streeting added: “We would have avoided some of the mistakes of the past year if we’d listened to our MPs.”
But he urged party members to “get behind our leader” while creating the space for “discourse and debate too”.
“We want to see the Labour Party do well. We’ve got to get behind our leader, we’ve got to get behind our team captain,” he said.
“We do have to create the space for discourse and debate too. And we do have to create the space for us to engage in a battle of ideas.”
