Andy Burnham finally confirmed last night that he is indeed standing for the Labour leadership – just in case anyone was confused about what the Mayor of Greater Manchester is up to as he stands in the Makerfield by-election. Speaking on BBC Question Time, Burnham said:

I’m not somebody who gets ahead of myself. I can’t do anything unless I’m lucky enough to get the support of people here. But if I get your support, I would seek to represent you at the highest possible level and give this constituency maximum power and influence. I think Wes Streeting seems to have launched a leadership contest, so if that is running, I would seek to join it.’

Both Streeting and Burnham have been running in their own leadership races for at least the past year, and have spent their entire adult lives wanting to be Labour leader. As such, it probably comes as more of a shock that Burnham thinks the contest has only just been launched.

Both Streeting and Burnham have been running in their own leadership races for at least the past year

His pitch on the programme was that he left Westminster because he thought it was broken, and he achieved more in Greater Manchester. He then argued that:

A more collaborative politics, a more, if you like, long-term approach to solving the country’s problems needs to be taken from here, Greater Manchester, and taken down there; a fundamental change in Westminster to restore the public’s trust now.

He answered questions from the Conservative candidate Michael Winstanley about why he was ending his term as mayor early in order to go back into Westminster. Burnham argued that ‘the public here are saying quite loudly to all of us, we need something different here’, and that he couldn’t just ‘sit where I am’.

Meanwhile, Downing Street responded last night that:

The country expects us to focus on governing and to deliver change for hard-working people, not get distracted by Westminster debates. The Labour party has a process for challenging a leader and it has not been triggered. The Prime Minister will not walk away from the mandate he was given just two years ago to build a stronger, fairer Britain.

This is the state of the Labour leadership contest at the moment: it both exists and doesn’t exist.