UK prime minister Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham, who aims to unseat him after winning the Makerfield byelection, were in a political standoff this weekend over the leadership of the Labour Party and, with it, the keys to Downing Street.
Burnham, who defeated Nigel Farage’s Reform UK by 20 percentage points in Thursday’s byelection, told his supporters on Friday that he would “lay out a new path for Britain” as he plots how to oust the unpopular Starmer from Number 10.
Meanwhile, the UK prime minister insists he is going nowhere and has warned Burnham’s allies not to drag Labour and Britain “into chaos by turning on each other and tearing apart our party”.
Burnham’s camp is understood to be prepared to give Starmer space and time for the next several days to reach his own decision to quit as prime minister.
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If Starmer digs in and continues to rule out stepping aside, they will crank up the pressure next week.
One source close to Burnham’s camp told The Irish Times that Burnham would seek to meet Starmer in the days ahead and present him with a list of the names of his backers for a challenge, in an attempt to convince the prime minister his position is hopeless.
It is also believed that senior Labour politicians, including some cabinet members, may also try to convince Starmer to step down in private conversations.
If that fails to get the prime minister to budge, it has been speculated by British media that a wave of UK government resignations could be unleashed to undermine Starmer’s position.
The prime minister’s allies, meanwhile, plan to fling obstacles in Burnham’s way to slow his route to Downing Street, such as the insistence that the former Greater Manchester mayor delay any challenge until after the mayoral byelection that is now due to replace him after he won the Makerfield vote.
“Starmer is done,” one Burnham ally said, adding that the prime minister should have announced by now that he would leave office, so he could go “with his head held high”.
Burnham won the byelection in a thumping win that exceeded even the biggest margins of victory foreseen by political pollsters.
He registered 55 per cent of the vote in Makerfield, a constituency of old mining towns south of Wigan, versus 35 per cent for Reform’s candidate, local plumber Rob Kenyon.
Six weeks ago, Labour candidates polled only around 23 per cent of the vote in the area in local elections where Reform virtually swept the board.
Farage said he was “disappointed” with the votes registered by his candidate in the Makerfield byelection. Restore Britain, another populist right wing party run by a rival of Farage’s, secured seven per cent of the poll, further splitting the anti-Burnham vote.
At a rally later on Friday, Burnham told his supporters that this week’s vote was Labour’s “last chance to change”, as he warned that the rise of Reform risked plunging Britain into the divisive style of politics seen in the US.
The date for the Manchester mayoralty byelection has been set for July 30th. It is understood that Beverly Craig, Labour’s head of Manchester City Council, is the leading potential candidate in her party.
The Green Party, which barely figured in Makerfield, is also expected to aggressively target the byelection, while Reform would also be expected to be in the running.
But for now, all eyes remain on Westminster, where Burnham is expected to be sworn in as an MP on Monday. After that, he will set his sights on Downing Street and how to remove Starmer from power.
