Interesting. This decision will come back to haunt Two-Tier Keir. He’ll be gone after the May local elections, if not before. The start of the BBC piece:

Andy Burnham has been blocked from standing as a candidate for an upcoming parliamentary by-election in Gorton and Denton by Labour’s ruling body.

As a directly elected mayor, Burnham had to get approval from Labour’s national executive committee (NEC), after he applied to be a candidate on Saturday.

But Labour said the party had decided to deny Burnham permission to stand to “avoid an unnecessary mayoral election, which would use substantial amounts of taxpayers’ money and resources that are better spent tackling the cost-of-living crisis”.

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