Andy Burnham says Boris Johnson should go now and let Dominic Raab take over

Andy Burnham has said that Boris Johnson should step down as Prime Minister right now and let his deputy Dominic Raab take over for the next few weeks.

The Greater Manchester mayor said the PM’s proposal to stay in power until the autumn is not ‘tenable’ and he should step down immediately.

It comes after Mr Johnson agreed to stand down as Prime Minister in time for a new leader to be in place by the Conservative Party conference in October.

But speaking on his weekly phone-in on BBC Radio Manchester Thursday morning (7 July), Mr Burnham said the Tories should choose a new leader within ‘three or four’ weeks so a new Prime Minister can be in place by the start of August.

The Labour mayor criticised the outgoing Prime Minister for ‘not upholding the standards required’ of his office and said he lied ‘on a fairly regular basis’.

He called for a quick leadership contest while Mr Raab is acting Prime Minister.

He said: “I don’t think in those circumstances where people have concluded that he’s not fit for the job to just say, you can carry on for three months.

“You’ve got to remove [him] at the earliest opportunity.

“And for me, that means the deputy Prime Minister, probably, has to step in and be an acting Prime Minister for the shortest possible period of time.

“And by that I mean three or four weeks to conclude a leadership election and then we have a new Prime Minister, let’s say at the start of August.”

The Greater Manchester mayor also warned that the ‘chaos’ in Westminster could lead to delays in decisions affecting the city-region including the roll out of bus franchsing, funding for public transport and the revised Clean Air Zone.

However, he said ‘the deck chairs being reorganised’ could be positive, criticising the former chancellor Rishi Sunak for ‘blocking’ levelling up.

He also said that the Labour Party should be ‘putting forward an alternative’.

And he suggested that his party should work with the Lib Dems and the Greens on a programme for political reform, including a new voting system.

He said: “What we’re living through right now is a system of government in this country that is dysfunctional. Westminster and Whitehall are dysfunctional.”

Joseph Timan, Local Democracy Reporting Service