Shadow Housing Secretary Sir James Cleverly has repeatedly declined to say that there should be a general election if Andy Burnham becomes Labour leader.

In an interview during The Camilla Tominey Show on GB News, he said: “I didn’t call for general elections when we changed leaders, I think there are bigger problems that we need to deal with as a country.

“We need to get defence spending sorted. We live in a turbulent world. We see everything that’s going on with Iran at the moment, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. What the government needs to do, what the Labour Party needs to do, is stop messing around and really focus. We were punished when we looked as if we weren’t paying enough attention to the country, and I think it would be an error for the government to do the same thing.

“Now, the fact of the matter is, we don’t know what Andy Burnham is going to do. It looks as if he’s going to take the government further to the left, and you can see a load of people positioning themselves to be part of that new left-wing government. Kemi has made it really, really clear: our priority is for the government to spend the appropriate amount of money on defence, and that is a lot more than they’re spending at the moment.”

Asked whether the reason the Conservatives are not calling for an election is because the party is not ready or would not win, Sir James said: “We can be ready at the drop of a hat. We’ve got an extensive association network, we’ve got a load of experienced councillors, we’ve got people from business and public services, who are ready to step forward, so if we had to, we absolutely could.”

He added: “This is about credibility and honesty, and this is the difference between us and say Reform, for example. On election night, Reform was saying…when it became clear that Andy Burnham was going to end up as Prime Minister, they were saying we need a general election now, we’re ready for it. It’s absolute nonsense. They would need 650 candidates, which they don’t have.

“They said they’re going to pack out the House of Lords, so they’ll need a couple of 100 extra there, and they were going to reform the top of the civil service with an extra couple of 100 there. So they’re saying they are ready to have 1,000 people step into government at short notice…

“We are saying that if we had to, we absolutely could fight, and I think have a really good chance of winning a general election. But the priority at the moment, the economy is suffering, and we need to change tack on that. And the government could do that, they could increase spending tomorrow on defence, they could do that tomorrow. They could reverse the welfare increases and spend that money on defence. That’s what they should be doing, rather than having yet another hiatus.”

On a possible deal between the Tories and Reform, he said: “We intend to beat Labour, and we intend to govern as Conservatives. We are the only party that has a proper plan for defence. Reform don’t even have a defence spokesperson, they only have a Foreign Affairs spokesperson.

“We’re the only party that will reduce the welfare bill and have a plan to do so.”