Andy Burnham’s team is already planning for the possibility that Josh Simons could move into No 10 if Burnham wins Thursday’s Makerfield by-election. Simons, the former MP who quit to make way for the Manchester Mayor, is being talked about as part of the machinery Burnham could take with him if he makes it back to Parliament.
That is why Simons is drawing attention now. Burnham is not waiting for the by-election result before thinking about Downing Street, and he has been taking advice from Baroness Sue Gray as he prepares for that next step. The timing matters because Thursday’s vote is the immediate test, and Burnham’s team is treating it as the opening move in a wider plan.
The numbers around Labour’s wider position help explain why the stakes feel high. In May this year, the Office for National Statistics said there were the lowest number of job vacancies since April 2021. In the three months to May, vacancies fell sharply and payroll workers fell by 53,000. Against that backdrop, Burnham’s allies are trying to show there is an alternative political operation ready to move if he returns to Parliament.
That is also where the friction sits. On Wednesday, Keir Starmer said he would offer Burnham a job in his Cabinet, a public gesture that might have sounded conciliatory. But Burnham allies say he would reject it, which leaves the Manchester Mayor looking less like a recruit and more like a rival preparing his own route back into the centre of power.
The exact role Simons would fill in No 10 has not been set out, and that is part of the point. What matters is the structure: if Burnham wins Thursday, the former MP who stepped aside for him could return in a central position, while Burnham and Starmer head into next week’s showdown with the shape of the future Labour operation still unresolved.
