Just 24 hours after Luciana Berger became the third Liverpool metro mayor hopeful, battle lines were drawn which have seen a spat brewing between Joe Anderson and his Manchester metro mayor hopeful Andy Burnham.
Liverpool’s mayor has criticised the Labour shadow home secretary and fellow Evertonian for making “ignorant and insensitive” comments towards local government leaders.
Mayor Anderson's remarks came after Burnham said the role of metro mayor was a “cabinet-level job requiring cabinet-level experience”.
Liverpool’s mayor described it as “the most ignorant and insensitive comment anybody could actually make because it is disrespectful to every local government leader who has worked hard for their area”.
Burnham is said to have made the comment during his launch to become Manchester’s Labour choice for their metro mayor. He argued that Labour should field its “biggest names” for mayoral jobs and said the party’s failure to do the same when devolution came to Scotland was a mistake.
First Walton MP Steve Rotheram decided to throw his hat into the Liverpool mayoral race, and now Wavertree MP Luciana Berger has followed, making it, so far at least, a three-horse race for Labour’s candidate. Whoever wins the Labour badge is almost certain to become the first ever directly elected mayor for the Liverpool City Region, taking in a manor that spreads from the city to Wirral, Sefton, Knowsley, St Helens and the twin towns of Widnes and Runcorn over in Halton.
In an interview today Mayor Anderson said: “Let me say to Andy Burnham and other shadow cabinet members, whether they’re standing or not: a Labour government should have pushed on this agenda of devolution.
“It’s a sad reflection on the Labour party that we’re having to do business with a Tory government who are cutting and bludgeoning us on the one hand, but at least they’re moving in a pragmatic way to devolve power.”
In response to Mayor Anderson, a spokesperson for Burnham said: “The mayor of Greater Manchester is a very different job, including running the NHS and the police. The mayor needs in-depth knowledge of the NHS – something that Andy Burnham has from his time as health secretary.”
Clockwise from top left: Labour metro mayoral hopefuls Luciana Berger, Andy Burnham, Steve Rotherham and Joe Anderson, three of whom are after the Liverpool City Region job. Leigh MP Burnham is casting his eye over Gtr ManchesterWith big-shot metro mayors being seen as the future in local and regional governance, the job is bound to attract potential escapees from Westminster - not least the Jeremy Corbyn-led shadow front bench.
The 10,000 Labour party members across the six areas will decide who their choice should be in the election which takes place next May.
Intensive campaigning by the Anderson, Rotheram and Berger camps will now take place over the coming weeks ahead of Labour's autumn secret ballot.
Berger yesterday used the headquarters of the Reader Organisation in the mansion house in Calderstones Park to tell her story about her decision to go for the job.
The fact she had been mulling over standing in the race has been well aired, but surrounded by aides and supporters, she pulled off a polished performance.
The London born polictician succeeded Jane Kennedy as Labour MP for Wavertree in 2010, with claims she had been parachuted in by party bigwigs.
In the pre-election party hustings though she won a commanding lead. In the 2010 general election, her first ever election bid, she won 53 percent of the vote, around 7,000 ahead of her nearest rival, the Lib Dem candidate.
Five years on, Berger won almost 70 percent of the vote, leaving her nearest rival, a Conservative trailing more than 24,000 votes behind. It became one of the safest Labour seats in the country.
Berger, who married Liverpool music industry executive Alistair Goldsmith last year, has made the city her family home, insisting she is the best person to take the city region forward.
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