Exclusive:Blocking Andy Burnham makes Keir Starmer look 'weak and insecure', says Scots MP

Brian Leishman said Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) should meet again and reverse the decision to prevent the Greater Manchester Mayor from making the Gorton and Denton by-election shortlist.

The Alloa and Grangemouth MP also said it was “rank hypocrisy” from the Prime Minister given he spoke out against the NEC imposing candidates in 2020.

But Sir Keir said Mr Burnham standing would have distracted from “very important elections in Scotland” this May.

Three Scottish Labour MPs - Mr Leishman, Euan Stainbank and Irene Campbell - had said that local members should be allowed to decide whether they want Mr Burnham as their candidate.

Mr Leishman said: “The NEC needs to reconvene. They need to meet again. They need to do it as an entire body.

“Basically, they’ve blown in the face of being a democratic political party.

“It should go to the local members of Gorton and Denton.

“Andy Burnham is massively high profile, has a track record of success in the Greater Manchester area and he’s hugely influential within the Labour movement.

“If you were going to play fantasy football and have a Labour Cabinet team, Andy Burnham would be in it.

“He’s experienced, he has a proven track record of success.

“Keir Starmer in 2020... there’s a historical tweet of him saying ‘We’ve got to stop the NEC imposing candidates. So what’s changed in five years?”

Read more: SNP MP's son appointed as senior advisor to party's Westminster group

Sir Keir tweeted in February 2020, when he was running for Labour leader: "The selections for Labour candidates needs to be more democratic and we should end NEC impositions of candidates.

“Local Party members should select their candidates for every election."

A 10-strong group from Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC), including the Prime Minister, voted to deny Mr Burnham permission to run in the by-election at a meeting on Sunday.

When asked if the NEC’s current stance was hypocritical, Mr Leishman said: “Total hypocrisy. It’s weak. It’s insecure leadership.

“He always talks about putting country before party. Well, the country would benefit from having a figure like Andy Burnham in Cabinet or in Parliament at least. Of course it would benefit from that.

“So it’s rank hypocrisy. He’s basically doing it to look after himself and his own position. And it’s made him look weak and insecure.”

Read more: Scots Labour MP urges party not to block Burnham despite fears of nightmare for Scottish Labour

Sir Keir said Mr Burnham is doing a “great job” as Greater Manchester mayor but allowing him to run for a Westminster seat would “divert our resources” from Labour’s campaigns in May elections.

The Prime Minister insisted the “battle of our times” was between Labour and Reform UK rather than within his own party despite internal anger over the move to block Mr Burnham from standing.

He appealed for unity within the party as it braces for local elections in spring, urging members and MPs to “line up together” to play a part in “a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country”.

The Prime Minister faced questions about the move on Monday on a visit to southwest London with Health Secretary Wes Streeting, another potential rival who would benefit from the mayor’s absence if he chose to stand in any contest.

Speaking to broadcasters at a health centre in Wimbledon, Sir Keir said: “We have really important elections already across England for local councils, very important elections in Wales for the government there, and very important elections in Scotland for the Scottish government that will affect millions of people.

“And we’re out campaigning on the cost of living, and they’re very important elections.

“We need all of our focus on those elections.

“Andy Burnham’s doing a great job as the Mayor of Manchester, but having an election for the Mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have, that we must fight and win, and resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have.

“And that was the basis of the NEC decision.”

Asked for his response to accusations of cowardice from within his own party, Sir Keir suggested that Labour rules hold that the “presumption” is against “introducing an election which we don’t have to have.”

“The question the NEC had to address was whether we should take the focus away, which it would have done, from the elections in Wales, in Scotland, and the elections we must have by introducing an election which we don’t have to have,” he said.

“And two years ago, the Labour Party changed the rules to say the presumption is really against doing that, because we need to fight where we must fight.”

Pressed on what his message would be to a divided and unsettled party, the Prime Minister said the party “must never lose sight” of what matters most to the public, namely the cost of living.

He added: “The second thing I’d say is there is a fight, yes, there is a fight, but that fight is with Reform, and we all need to line up together to be in that fight, all playing our part.

“I think that everybody in the Labour Party, everybody who’s a Labour MP, wants to be in that fight, wants to fight alongside all their colleagues in a fight that matters hugely to the future of our country.”

He said he had a good working relationship with Mr Burnham, citing how they responded together to the synagogue attack in Manchester last year.

Make sure you don't miss a moment of breaking news from across Scotland by signing up to our free newsletter here.