Andy Burnham says he won’t take money from unions to fund his leadership campaign

Since he announced he’d be standing to be leader, Andy Burnham has been dubbed as the candidate who’ll get the backing of most of the unions. However, he has announced that he won’t be taking any money from the unions to fund his campaign.

Burnham said that so far he has not been offered any money from the unions, but even if it was he would encourage that they give it to the party to help “assist the rebuilding after the election”. He explained that this move was not about attacking the unions:

“I am not going to take any money from the trades unions in this leadership campaign[…]But I am actively seeking the support of individual trade union members and am pleased they have a bigger say in this contest.

“I am aware that, whatever the result of this contest, the party must come out of this well. I am going to be my own man. I am independent and will make my own judgments. I make no apology for our historic links with the trades unions.

“What I have decided is a risk, but it is a sign of my confidence and openness that this contest is conducted in the right way. If I take no money from the unions, I am not dependent on them, and that will put me in a stronger position to defend unions and to defend the union link in the future, which I intend to do.”

There are also rumours that Burnham might encourage some of his MP backers to switch their vote to another candidate if he surpasses the 35 vote threshold  needed to make it onto the ballot. This comes after there have been some concerns that a lot of MPs will be backing two of the candidates, Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham, which would make it difficult for third person – at the moment Liz Kendall and Mary Creagh are the two other hopefuls – to make it on to the ballot paper.

Hunt made this point in a speech backing Liz Kendall, and he has now been joined by new MPs Stephen Kinnock (Neil Kinnock’s son) and and Jo Cox who have written a letter expressing their concerns. They have said:

“As newly elected MPs, we are being asked to nominate candidates on the basis of very little information about how they plan to rethink, rebuild and relaunch our party. The primary purpose of the nomination phase should be to ensure that Labour party members and registered supporters across the length and breadth of the UK are ultimately presented with a strong and diverse shortlist.”