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No one is in doubt about Andy Burnham's leadership ambitions - but no one in the Labour Party seems to believe it will happen. The Greater Manchester mayor has long been rumoured to be plotting a return to Westminster.

He has fuelled speculation that he wants to oust Keir Starmer and take over as Prime Minister after giving several feature interviews, setting out a series of policies, ahead of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool this week. He insists that he is simply 'launching a debate' - but he is yet to explicitly rule out challenging the Labour leader.

Instead, he told a fringe event on Monday (September 29) that he can't run for leader because he is not an MP .

That much is true. If Andy Burnham did want to become Labour leader, he would need to become a

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