A senior Labour Party official in Northern Ireland has stated that Andy Burnham has given public backing to the party's campaign to end the suppression of its candidates in elections there.

Boyd Black, secretary of the Northern Ireland Constituency Labour Party, said Mr Burnham had been a long-standing supporter of the effort to stop what the party describes as sham elections.

He pointed to an interview Mr Burnham gave during his successful Makerfield by-election campaign, published in The House magazine, in which the MP reiterated his stance.

The Labour Party does not currently allow members to stand as candidates in Northern Ireland, a policy that the local party has long campaigned against.