Burnham-Streeting latest: Streeting reopening Brexit wars by calling for UK return to EU ‘a bit odd,’ says Nandy

Speculation about Labour’s leadership contest is “frothy and ridiculous”, a senior Cabinet minister has said.

On Sky News Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Lisa Nandy was asked whether she believed Sir Keir Starmer would resign as Prime Minister by the summer holidays.

The Minister of Culture responded: “No, I don’t know.

“I spoke to the Prime Minister a number of times last week and he made it clear to the Cabinet on Tuesday that if people want to challenge him there is a process to do that, there is a way to trigger a leadership contest, become leader of the Labor Party and replace him as Prime Minister.

“Despite absolutely feverish speculation, no one has done this yet.

“Every hour for the last week I have heard that Wes Streeting is about to launch a challenge; that Andy Burnham is about to contest every seat in Greater Manchester, including mine; that Angela Rayner has been written off; that Angela Rayner is now challenging; and most of this has turned out to be just froth and nonsense.

“We must continue the work.”

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham was popular only because he “didn’t have to do anything”.

Answering questions about whether Mr Burnham would be a “real threat” if he became Labor leader, Ms Badenoch told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “He’s just popular because he hasn’t had to do anything.

“Politics is about making tough decisions. Once he comes around and realizes there’s no money to throw around, he’ll become unpopular.”

“Andy Burnham is talking about increasing borrowing. That will affect everyone’s mortgages, which will affect the borrowing costs of this country.

“Billions of dollars will be added to debt interest; you’ll be paying Burnham premiums. I don’t think that will make him popular at all.”

Now that Wes Streeting and Andy Burnham have effectively thrown their hats in the ring for a possible Labor leadership contest, his allies are advocating for their own man to replace Keir Starmer.

Here we take a look at who they are and why they support their candidate.

Wes Streeting’s online post about proposed improvements to the NHS under Labor has been fact-checked by Community Notes on X.

The former health secretary, who is running for the Labor leadership on Saturday, wrote: “NHS waiting lists are decreasing, ambulances are arriving faster, there are more GPs and there is higher patient satisfaction. Much has been done, much remains to be done.”

This was confirmed when users added context in response to the post, stating: “As the backlog began to decline, unreported removals increased (Figure 3). In fact, the number of additional uncompleted referrals joining the waitlist each month was outnumbered many times over.”

Jess Phillips said former health secretary and potential Labor leadership candidate Wes Streeting had shown “courage and bravery” in government.

She told the BBC: “He once told me that the process of writing the Strategy on Violence Against Women and Girls felt like me hanging him upside down by his ankles and going through his pockets, but the truth is he took action and got the right people to do the right thing.”

“There is one instance where I found him very outspoken.

“The Prime Minister certainly cares about violence against women and girls, don’t get me wrong, but what I see in Wes is bravery and bravery.”

Andy Burnham’s allies have backed him not joining Wes Streeting’s calls for Britain to rejoin the European Union.

Burnham ally Lisa Nandy said Labor should avoid “restarting the Brexit wars”, likening it to saying “life was good in 2015, we just need to get back there”.

Connor Naismith, Labor MP for Crewe & Nantwich, also backs Burnham making domestic issues a priority for the UK and not “restarting a debate about Europe”.

After resigning as health secretary last week, Wes Streeting called on Britain to rejoin the European Union and described Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake”.

But Andy Burnham’s allies say Streeting is trying to derail his campaign to win the Makerfield by-election and move up to 10th place. Times reported.

The Mayor of Manchester’s allies accused Streeting of playing into Nigel Farage’s hands and trying to make Brexit an issue in the Leave-voting seat of Makerfield.

One of them said: “Wes’ only hope of becoming the next leader is if Andy loses the byelection. [Streeting’s] Comments… are counterproductive to Labor winning this by-election. “It is very transparent.”

Burnham ally Lisa Nandy said Labor should avoid “restarting the Brexit wars”, likening it to saying “life was good in 2015, we just need to get back there”.

Former deputy chancellor Angela Rayner has been ruled out by No 10 over replacing Wes Streeting as health minister. But he turned down the role Times reported.