Allies of Andy Burnham believe Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer should set out a timetable to hand over the premiership in September, according to reports emerging today. They reportedly believe it should happen to avoid jeopardising Labour's prospects in the Greater Manchester mayoral race.
The development comes after the Manchester Evening News exclusively revealed those close to the now new Makerfield MP believe the party could lose the mayoralty if Sir Keir does not step down, or set out a timetable to do so.
Sources speaking to the M.E.N. called on the PM to make an announcement that he is going because there is a 'visceral reaction' to him. "He doesn’t need to say he is going straight away, just that he is planning to go. He needs to set out a timetable," one source said.
Burnham's Victory Sets Up Leadership Battle
Further reports emerged on Friday after Mr Burnham secured a convincing win over Reform UK to triumph in Makerfield in the early hours of Friday. The leadership hopeful's victory in the Makerfield by-election has set up a battle for No 10 as the Prime Minister made clear he will fight any challenge to his position earlier on Friday.
Supporters close to the outgoing Greater Manchester mayor are not seeking an immediate transfer of power as they want time to prepare for governing in the event that he succeeds in ousting Sir Keir, it is understood. Mr Burnham’s election on Friday as the MP for Makerfield also means he is giving up the mayoral role he has held since 2017, with a contest to replace him set for July 30.
Reform UK and Greens Eye Gains
Reform UK, who made sweeping gains in the area at May’s local elections, and the Greens, who won the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, will both be hoping to win over voters in the traditional Labour stronghold. Allies of Mr Burnham are understood to want Sir Keir to set out a timetable to depart in September over the coming days, with some believing the mayoral race would be harder for the party to win with no prospect of a change in leader.
But Sir Keir has insisted he will fight his rivals should a contest be triggered after the outgoing mayor and former Leigh MP’s return to Westminster, who defied national trends to increase Labour’s share of the vote in Makerfield. He said he will not “walk away” from Downing Street and has been holding calls with members of his Cabinet to shore up support in the wake of the by-election result, as first reported by The i Paper.
Speaking to reporters at an event in north London, Sir Keir said: "If there is a contest, then yes, I will stand. I have said repeatedly, I am not going to walk away from that." The Prime Minister said he had not yet directly spoken with Mr Burnham since his victory, but added that he will, and had already sent a message of congratulations to him.
Starmer Calls for Unity
In a lunchtime call with Labour staffers, he called for the party to “pull together” in taking the fight to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and warned against “turning on each other”. He said: "The one thing we’ve got to avoid doing is plunging our party and our country into chaos by turning on each other and tearing apart our party and our movement. That has never worked. That’s what the last government did. We need to learn that lesson."
Sir Keir is understood to have amassed a war chest to fund his campaign to fight any leadership challenge with the backing of a group of private donors, as first reported by The Times. Fundraising has ramped up in the last two days with total pledges running into six figures, sources said.
At a Labour rally following his win, leadership hopeful Mr Burnham said: "We’ve been on a path for 40 years that simply hasn’t worked for people and places in this part of the world, and this now is the change moment. We have an opportunity to turn the tide, to make the country feel like it’s working again, to make people see that politics can make a positive difference, to make people feel hope again."
By-Election Context
Makerfield is the third successive parliamentary by-election in which Nigel Farage’s political outfit has come second over the last year, following the Caerphilly by-election for the Welsh Parliament in October, and the Gorton and Denton Westminster by-election in February.
Louise Haigh, a former minister in Sir Keir’s Cabinet, also urged the Prime Minister to set out an orderly transition and agree a “path forward” with Mr Burnham in the coming days. She said: "I hope the Prime Minister takes the weekend to really reflect on the result here – listen to soundings from the Cabinet and the PLP, because all the evidence suggests that a contest will be brutal, it will be unpleasant and it will be very unlikely that the Prime Minister is going to win at the end of it."
