Labour’s NEC opens door for Burnham to return to Westminster via Makerfield byelection – as it happened

This blog is closing now, you can read more on this story here

Labour's deputy leader, Lucy Powell, has backed Andy Burnham's efforts to return to parliament, saying there will be no attempt to stop the Greater Manchester mayor from fighting an upcoming byelection in Makerfield.

Speaking at a Fire Brigades Union conference in Coventry, she said

We could have further to fall as a party and we absolutely need to come back together as one team, because we've got to take the fight to [Nigel] Farage. We are at real risk of Nigel Farage walking up Downing Street in a few years time, and we can't let that happen.

But we've got to do our politics differently. We've got to end the factionalism. We've got to embrace all the different traditions of the Labour party, all the different voices, and bring one team back together.