It was one of the defining images of the Labour Party conference.

Shortly before Keir Starmer was due to give his keynote speech on Tuesday afternoon, Andy Burnham was pictured leaving the venue flanked by two aides.

After days of will-he-won’t-he speculation about the mayor of Manchester’s leadership intentions, it was a fairly ignominious departure.

Burnham had started off as the conference darling, his every move followed by a posse of photographers as he went from fringe event to fringe event telling delegates where the government is going wrong.

But, amid mounting anger from Labour MPs at his behaviour, he ultimately disappointed his supporters by giving Starmer his backing to continue as leader.

“Every time the party is having a tough time Andy follows the same pattern,” s

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