Alistair Campbell

Abraham Lincoln famously brought in his opponents to build his team, so-called team of rivals.

And he explained it as this.

We needed the strongest men of the party in the cabinet.

We needed to hold our own people together.

I had looked the party over and concluded these were the very strongest men.

I had no right to deprive the country of their services.

Right, brilliant.

And that's the case for Keir Starmer saying, whatever the threat to me, Andy Burnham's pretty good.

He's done a good job in Manchester.

I'll get him in.

And I would also argue, so Al Carnes, for example, is a very good example of where Keir Starmer did reach out beyond the Labour tribe.

But I think it's possible to make the case that he maybe should have thought

Can I get David Miliband to come back?

Can I get Alan Milburn to come back?

And there was something in that, and the control freakery is certainly sort of part of the kind of narrative against Keir Starmer.

But I think on this one, I think it's much, much more complicated than the way that maybe it's been projected.

And if you look at the polling, it says Andy Burnham should be allowed to stand.

Well, fine.

But then you also do have to at least weigh up in the judgment.

The idea of, let's just say Nigel Farage fielded a really strong candidate for Manchester mayor, and let's just say they won.