Starmer-Burnham latest: PM reportedly ‘resigned’ to stepping down as over 100 MPs call for him to quit

Sir Keir Starmer is reportedly spending the weekend at Chequers with his wife Victoria considering whether he should stay as prime minister and fight a leadership contest or whether he should walk away gracefully.

Pressure was building on the Labour leader on Saturday, with multiple reports saying that Sir Keir had realised that he can no longer stay as prime minister.

Business secretary Peter Kyle will be representing the cabinet on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg this morning as the discussion over Sir Keir’s future heats up further.

He will be joined by shadow chancellor Mel Stride, former cabinet secretary Simon Case, former Downing Street director of political strategy Paul Ovenden and Labour peer John Hutton. Also on the show will be Labour MPs Toby Perkins, Jess Phillips, and Luke Charters.

Monday will bring Andy Burnham to Westminster in his first day as MP for Makerfield.

Allies of Andy Burnham are reportedly growing confident that he will be crowned prime minister rather than face a prolonged contest for Labour leadership.

Mr Burnham is hopeful that he will have enough support from MPs to trigger a contest for the top job, The Guardian reported.

Cabinet ministers warned Sir Keir on Friday that if he chose to fight a leadership contest rather than setting out a timetable for departure then he would face a series of painful resignations. Paving the way for a potential coronation of Mr Burnham as prime minister.

One Burnham ally told the paper: We passed every single ridiculous test that they set – to win the way Andy has won, we smashed through every single ceiling they set, I think there couldn’t be a clearer message.

“It’s not a personal thing, but we can’t afford not to do this. We’ve got to be honest with ourselves about where we are and what we need to do to keep a Labour government going and [Starmer] can’t do that sadly.

“This is an existential crisis for us.”

A unique situation has opened up for him, albeit with some base manoeuvrings that would usually be described as machiavellian. A by-election in a fairly safe “local” Labour seat was engineered with him in mind, one where he could exploit the grievances created by a deeply unpopular Labour government and prime minister. “Vote for Us” was Burnham’s vibe-based slogan. You might say it’s rather disingenuous.

Mention of the Labour government, let alone Keir Starmer, hardly fell from his lips for weeks on end. The only time he talked about Labour being in power was to trash the record not just of the present government but also that of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, in which he loyally served as a minister and, latterly, in cabinet.

To Burnham, now, they may have done a few good things – but they were merely episodes in a 40-year-long neoliberal Thatcherite betrayal of the North of England and the working classes and for which, presumably, the time has come for them to be held to account by Our Andy.

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Purnell and Burnham were close friends. They had both been special advisers in the Blair government, both parachuted into safe Labour seats in the northwest of England in their early thirties, both risen to cabinet before 40.

All eyes turned to Burnham. Would he gamble and try to bring down a failing leader? As it happened, Burnham chose to remain in office, and even got a promotion to health secretary.

Some Labour figures of that vintage still wonder how history might have been different had Brown been removed in 2009 and David Miliband had stepped in. If Burnham had made another choice, could Labour have clung to power at the 2010 general election, preventing David Cameron, austerity and Brexit? It’s a question for future historians to ponder.

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The Green Party has announced councillor Geraldine Coggins as its candidate in the by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty triggered by Andy Burnham’s election as an MP.

Labour is pitching the contest as a two-horse race between Labour and Reform UK, but the Greens are looking to build on their success in the Gorton and Denton by-election with a strong challenge of their own.

Ms Coggins told supporters at a launch event in Manchester that it was a straight contest between the Greens and Nigel Farage’s party as she pledged to improve transport, housing and choose “people and planet over profits”.

Former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe said on Saturday that his Restore party would stand a candidate and announce the name next week.

Ms Coggins, councillor for Trafford in Greater Manchester since 2018 – who is originally from Ireland, is a published academic with a background in leadership, public finance and strategic decision-making, the party said.

A senior ally of Sir Keir Starmer has told The Sun that they believe there is “just a 25 per cent chance he fights on now”.

Sir Keir is facing mounting pressure to set out a timetable to resign, with The Observer reporting this could happen as soon as Monday.

A Labour peer told the paper that they think Sir Keir sees that “stopping ‘chaos’ (as he rightly put it) is now not possible by staying.”

No 10 said Sir Keir’s position remained unchanged from Friday, when he said he will not “walk away” from Downing Street and that he plans to stand in any potential contest.

He warned Labour staffers during a call on Friday lunchtime to avoid “plunging our party and our country into chaos by turning on each other and tearing apart our party and our movement”.

He is understood to have spoken to a number of Cabinet ministers on Friday, some of whom are reported to have told him he should set out a timetable for his departure.

Ministers eager to support Andy Burnham’s Labour leadership challenge have been told “not to resign” by his team, but instead to tell Sir Keir Starmer that he needs to set out a timetable to step down.

One Burnham camp insider told The Sunday Times: “Don’t get trigger happy, right? Go and speak to [Starmer] and tell him in no uncertain terms that he needs to set out a timetable.”

They added: “For some, it’ll be the third time they’ve said that to him. So I’m not sure that’s going to work all of a sudden. But there’s going to be more of them than before.”

Ministers that have told Sir Keir he needs to resign include the transport secretary Heidi Alexander, and the chief whip Jonathan Reynolds, according to reports.

Sir Keir Starmer is considering his position after being told by “not the usual suspects” that he should step down as prime minister, according to a report.

A government source told The Sunday Telegraph that Sir Keir has been reflecting on his future as those pressing on him that he should resign are “different – they are not the usual suspects”.

One Labour MP, who the paper said is usually considered to be a loyalist, said he believed Sir Keir could set a date to leave as soon as Monday.

They said that Sir Keir’s support had wained so much that “there’s no one left”.

One Keir ally told The Sun: “I think there is just a 25 per cent chance he fights on now.”

Rachel Reeves would lose her job as Chancellor if Andy Burnham takes over as prime minister, The Sunday Times is reporting.

According to the paper, the Burnham camp have decided that keeping Ms Reeves in position would not “represent a sufficient change in direction”.

Energy secretary Ed Miliband, Wes Streeting, work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden have all been floated as potential replacements, according to the report.

Sir Keir Starmer has realised that the “game is up” and is preparing to resign, according to a report in The Sunday Telegraph.

A senior government figure has told the paper that Sir Keir has realised he cannot cling on as prime minister and is considering how he could “shore up his legacy” before he is replaced.

The source said that there had been “quite a bit of movement” among cabinet ministers over whether Sir Keir should stay on, piling pressure on the Labour leader.

One government figure said that “something will have happened by the end of the week”, and warned that if Sir Keir did not resign “we could end up in mass resignation territory”.

Andy Burnham, who is now an MP after a resounding win in Makerfield, is said to favour a coronation as leader, rather than a contest over who should run the Labour party.