CLIVE'S GOING NOWHERE

Labour's Clive Lewis has told the Beeb's Politics Live that he is prepared to give up his Norwich South seat to allow Andy Burnham a route back into the Commons in order to challenge Keir Starmer for the party leadership.  It's an open secret that the Mayor of Greater Manchester would like to dislodge Starmer, but an endorsement from Lewis - who is on the hard left of the party - is somewhat odd.  On paper Burnham does not represent anything that would appeal to Labour's Socialist Campaign Group, of which Lewis is a member.  A successful Burnham challenge would simply mean replacing one globalist Blairite clone with another.

Watch the clip below.

While his overtures to Burnham are at odds with his place on the political spectrum, the reality is that Clive is going nowhere.  Are we to believe that an MP of ten years, with up to four more years left of his current term, is going to give up his seat on the Westminster gravy train?  Is Clive Lewis the man who will put honour back into honourable member?

Highly doubtful.  He knows full well there is no likelihood of the so-called 'King in the North' parachuting into Norfolk.  Even in the event Lewis did stand down and Burnham went for it, the mayor would still have to go through the selection process.  He would be humiliated if the local CLP rejected him and it would also render Lewis's own resignation pointless.

In any case, Clive has already backed down from what he now says was a response to a 'hypothetical question'.  He has told The Sun's political editor: “I have no plans to stand down.  A hypothetical question was put to me, and my answer was consistent with what I have been saying – that I am serious about putting country before party.”

Serious, except when he offered a rather straightforward answer to a question of vacating the gravy train.  No, he's not at all serious then.

The challenge to Starmer - when it comes - will not come from Burnham, but from within the House of Commons.  Rumblings on the back benches and the front will grow stronger as Starmer faces multiple hurdles in the next six months.  There's the Budget, the local elections, opposition to digital ID and a certain court case in April concerning the activities of three 'aspiring male models' from eastern Europe...