Andy Burnham confirms he will run for mayor for third time

The mayor revealed the information as part of an interview set to be broadcast at 6pm on Sunday, January 22.

He also hinted that he may run for a position as Labour leader, according to the news station.

Running for a third term

According to GB News, the mayor said: “Well, firstly I will be running for a third term as mayor of Greater Manchester.

“I love what I’m doing. I think what we are building in Manchester is a big part of the answer to make British politics work better.

"And that is putting more power in the hands of a place like Greater Manchester.

“You give a place like this more power and it’s unbelievable what it can do with it. So, I’m not walking away from that, I’m going to be standing for a third term. 

“What the future holds beyond that, I honestly don’t know. I have said I wouldn’t rule out going back at some point, but to make it clear, I would like to see Keir Starmer as the next Prime Minister of this country. 

I would like to see Keir Starmer as the next Prime Minister of this country. 

Keir Starmer (Image: PA)

“I hope there will be a Labour government that really does get power out of Westminster.

“But later down the line, after all of that has happened, I'm not going to say that I'm going to rule that out.

"I mean having been in Westminster all of those years, and now having done this for almost six years, I feel I know a lot of the changes this country needs.”

Mr Burnham is also said to have shared his opinion that all political parties are failing to cut through to voters.

“I don’t think any of the parties are really cutting through to the extent that is needed given the feelings people have got about life at the moment,” he said.

“I don’t think this is a moment for sort of ‘business as usual’ politics.  This is a moment where people are in a crisis situation in terms of their finances, and they look around and they see trains that don’t work but the companies who run them are getting bailed out to the tune of hundreds of millions.

This is a moment where people are in a crisis situation in terms of their finances

“They look at a situation where energy was all sold off and now they have to pay thousands for their bills, whereas in other countries that’s not the case. People look at housing where everything was broken up and sold off. 

“I honestly think the public are saying, ‘Well hang on a minute, that stuff has not worked’. It’s not working for the vast majority of people. People can’t afford the basics, they can’t afford the essentials.”

Connecting with working-class voters

Outlining how Labour might better connect with working class voters, he added: “I think it’s about focusing on the issues that working-class people care about and that they experience every day.

“When I was in Parliament, I can barely remember someone from Labour’s side standing at the despatch box saying, ‘I’m going to make a big issue about reforming buses’. Never heard it once. And yet you come back here as mayor and everyone is like, ‘Sort the buses out Andy, they're an absolute mess.’”

A Bee Network bus, set to be introduced as part of the Mayor's bus franchising plan (Image: GMCA)

Mr Burnham said being able to deliver in the north has people to “see the real me”.

“In this role I don't have the same constraints,” he admitted. “I’m kind of speaking for the place, not always the party. I'm doing what's right for Greater Manchester.

“This is the place I’m from, the place I love, I’m at home here. So yeah, I think that leads to you coming across in a different way. I look back on my time in Westminster and I don’t think people did see the real me.”

Outlining his vision for the north he said: “The North’s getting organised. It’s getting stronger, it’s not going to put up with things the way they’ve always been. Maybe people saw that in the pandemic when the Government tried to railroad us into tier three and we took a stand. 

“Things have changed, and in that moment, Whitehall did not like us answering back, but they’re going to have to get used to it. The North is not going back to the way we were treated before.

Whitehall did not like us answering back, but they’re going to have to get used to it.

“Now this isn’t about getting threatening or anything like that, it’s about being positive about what we’ve got to offer as the North of England.

"There is so much more we could be with the right support. But people in Whitehall should make no mistake, they can’t continue to treat us in the way they always have done, when it comes to transport for instance, as second-class citizens that should just expect a second-class service.

“Well, no, I’m sorry, that’s over.”

Andy Burnham at an event in Manchester in September 2021, showing off a new yellow bus (Image: Jack Fifield)

Mayor praises Michael Gove

Mr Burnham also heaped praise on one of his political opponents, Michael Gove.

The mayor said: “I was Shadow Education Secretary when he was Education Secretary, and we definitely didn’t agree at that time, but we always got on and I respected his energy as a minister. He gets things done.

“He makes change happen and that’s what you want in a government minister. Too many of them mind the paper clips and they’re there because they like being there, they like the idea of it.

“Whereas Michael actually uses it to try and get things done, and I think both of us have kind of come a bit more together.

“So it’s a pleasure to work with him at times, actually. I don’t mind saying that because he goes about things in a good way.

The Mayor praised Michael Gove (Image: PA)

“He listens, not every minister on any side does that – but he does. And I’m hoping within a month or so, to have signed a new devolution deal for Great Manchester with Michael and the rest of the Government. That will be a big sign that devolution is really coming into its own.”

He listens, not every minister on any side does that – but he does.

Mayor on Hillsborough

Meanwhile Mr Burnham, who has spent much of his career fighting for the victims of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989, told GB News about what sparked the campaign. 

He said: “The big thing that happened while I was at university was Hillsborough. I was in my Easter break in my first year, I’m a big Everton supporter.

“I was back home, and I was in the pub with friends who were Liverpool supporters who were going to Hillsborough.

“Liverpool were going back to the same ground where they’d had problems the year before, everyone knew that ground was unsafe, everyone who’d been and stood on the Leppings Lane terrace, as I had done. The next night we saw people return from Hillsborough utterly traumatised. 

“And then within days, certain newspapers were blaming the supporters rather than what we knew to be the truth. So, all of that happened, then I went back to Cambridge University for my summer term and it was literally like it hadn’t happened. That experience has been a defining one for me throughout my life.”

The full interview will be broadcast on Sunday, January 22 at 6pm on GB News.