Josh Simons stood down for Burnham as Labour was 'imploding'

The MP who has stepped down as an MP to allow Andy Burnham a chance to challenge the prime minister has said it "was too big an opportunity to miss".

Josh Simons, the Makerfield Labour MP, told BBC Radio Manchester the Labour Party had been "imploding" over the last week.

Simons stood down on Thursday, allowing the Greater Manchester mayor to put himself forward as a parliamentary candidate.

He won the seat by 5,399 votes over Reform candidate Robert Kenyon at the last election.

The 32-year-old father-of-three, who has only been an MP for two years, said stepping aside was the "most difficult decision of my life".

Simons added: "It was a decision I took with my wife. We decided as a family.

"We've been speaking about this for a few days. It's been incredibly fast, if I'm honest.

He added: "We were heading for a leadership election with the Labour Party spit into different factions, and there was no hope, no energy that anything would change…"

He added that Makerfield was "where Andy Burnham has lived for 25 years" and that he was "coming home".

He said "Labour needs to change and the whole government needs to change".

Simons' decision came as Labour MPs began calling for Sir Keir Starmer to set a timetable to quit his job following Labour's disastrous showing in the local elections last week and growing backbench discontentment with his leadership.

On Thursday Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigned from the government, signalling a future intentions to challenge Starmer on the same day another possible candidate, former deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner claimed an investigation into her tax affairs by His Majesty's Revenue and Customs was over.

Burnham, who has been metro mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, needs to be an MP again to lead the party.

Bury-born Simons said he thinks Burnham can win the seat in an area where Reform swept the board in last week's elections.

He added: "It's gonna be a really, really, really tough fight. That's the truth.

"Sometimes in history, when people take risks and they say, 'I think this is the right fight to have, but I don't know if we're going to win it', that's what changes the story. That's what changes the course of things.

"I do not know what will happen in that by-election."

Simons said he had not been promised any new job.

"There's some mad chat going around that I'm running for mayor of Manchester now, but I can tell you live right now, I'm not doing that," he said.

He added: "The first thing I'm going to do is spend some time with my three-week-old son.

"It's been a bit of a whirlwind since he was born, and now this. I'm going to spend some time with my wife and my three kids and my newborn son.

"And most importantly, I'm going to be helping to win this by-election."