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When Andy Burnham first tried to return to the Commons, by applying to be Labour’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, Labour’s national executive committee blocked him – in part because, they argued, Labour might find it hard to hold the Greater Manchester mayoralty in the byelection caused by his resignation.
When he next applied to be a candidate, for Makerfield, the NEC no longer felt able to say no because the results for Labour in the May elections were so bad that the case for having Burnham in parliament became overwhelming.
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