Andy Burnham has announced he is leaving Jeremy Corbyn's shadow cabinet to focus on his bid to become Greater Manchester's mayor.
The shadow home secretary said he had asked the Labour leader to "plan a new shadow cabinet without me".
In his speech at the Labour conference in Liverpool, Mr Burnham said he had "given my all" to the party and had "always put its interests above those of factions and personalities".
The former leadership contender is hoping to be elected as the new mayor for Greater Manchester in 2017.
He said: "This is my 10th conference speaking to you as a cabinet or shadow cabinet minister. And it will be my last.
"It is time for me to turn my full focus to Greater Manchester. 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.
"I have given my all to this party and always put its interests above those of factions and personalities. And I have given exactly the same loyalty to all four of the Labour leaders I have served.
"Out there, there's a demand for big changes in the way this country is run. This party should be the voice for that change. So that's why I am ready to leave Westminster.
"It's time to make a change, to challenge the status quo from the outside. It's time to get the voice of the North heard like it has never been heard before."
The chair of the women's Parliamentary Labour Party, Jess Phillips, suggested Mr Corbyn could take the opportunity of Mr Burnham's departure to appoint a female shadow home secretary.
"Fond farewell and thank you to Andy Burnham as shadow home secretary. Great chance for Jeremy to even up women in four Great Offices of State 50/50," tweeted the Birmingham Yardley MP.
Shadow minister for preventing abuse Sarah Champion said Mr Burnham's announcement was "deeply sad, but understandable", hailing him as "a remarkable man who I've been proud to serve with".
But Liberal Democrat chief whip Tom Brake said: "Only Andy Burnham can resign halfway through his own speech.
"I believe in politics there are weathervanes and signposts. Andy Burnham is the weathervane in a gale. He has had more views on immigration than I've had hot dinners.
"For a man who has spent his life facing both ways on this critical issue, his speech today takes the biscuit."
Mr Burnham denied his resignation was a blow to Mr Corbyn.
"No, it's not in any way a blow to Jeremy," he told BBC Radio 4's World At One programme.
"As he begins to think about his new team, it's right for me to say it's time for me to take a step back because I've been elected as Labour's candidate to be the first mayor of Greater Manchester.
"That's now my priority, that's where my full focus needs to be.
"So I know it's the way of this world that everybody will say things like that but it just isn't true."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel