Andy Burnham finally quits the shadow cabinet

Andy Burnham has just announced he’s leaving the shadow cabinet. He said he was doing so to concentrate on his mayoral bid, telling Labour’s conference:

‘That’s why I can tell you all first today that I have asked Jeremy to plan a new Shadow Cabinet without me, although I will of course stay until it is in place.’

He also took a pop at Westminster (‘Westminster over decades has failed the North of England’) and said the turmoil in the Labour party over the last year had made him ‘profoundly sad’. But he also – tried – to use his speech to defend himself. Burnham has been accused of flip-flopping all over the place recently. He came under fire over the summer for being one of the few members of the shadow cabinet not to walk away. Some said that was because Burnham lacked a backbone in failing to stand up to Corbyn.