‘If Starmer ever had a plot, he’s lost it’: Veteran MP’s withering verdict as ‘zombie’ PM faces stalking horse challenge – and Andy Burnham moves a step closer to Downing Street

Andy Burnham moved a step closer to Downing Street last night after he was accused of ‘losing the plot’ over the threat to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.

The damaging claim from one of the Prime Minister’s own senior MPs comes after he unexpectedly appointed two ‘heirlooms’ of the Tony Blair era – former prime minister Gordon Brown and former deputy leader Harriet Harman – in a desperate bid to save his premiership.

And on Saturday night a backbencher added to the uproar by saying that if a Cabinet minister did not challenge Sir Keir by Monday he would try to mount a prowling horse to trigger a leadership fight.

The intervention by Catherine West, who was dubbed a ‘stalking donkey’ by a Labor source, comes as the number of Labor MPs who have publicly called for the Prime Minister to resign after the party suffered in last week’s local elections has surpassed 30. As Sir Keir leaves

Manchester MP Graham Stringer, whose MPs were baffled about bringing Mr Brown and Ms Harman back to the heart of No 10, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘If Keir has a plot then he’s lost. It is a parody of the politics of 16 years ago.

‘Neither Harriet nor Gordon can solve an impossible problem: how to reform a very unpopular Prime Minister.’

Other party sources variously described the appointments as ‘madness’, ‘ineffective’, ‘the final act of a zombie government’ and ‘a night of living fools’.

Manchester mayor Mr Burnham is set to table a bid to return to the House of Commons within the next seven days, which would give him the opportunity to challenge Sir Keir’s leadership.

Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is set to bid to return to the House of Commons within the next seven days

But Ms West, MP for Hornsey and Friern Barnet and former junior Foreign Office minister, created further confusion when she said she had ‘taken notice’ of the Cabinet.

He claimed ten of his fellow MPs were prepared to support his leadership bid, but said he was ‘confident’ he could get the 81 needed to trigger a formal contest representing 20 per cent of the party in parliament.

But the main leadership camps said he was not acting on their behalf.

Mr Burnham’s supporters said he would soon announce his intention to run for an undisclosed seat in the North West.

If Sir Keir tries to block the move (as he tried to do in Mr Burnham’s seat of Gorton and Denton earlier this year) then a ‘battalion’ of Labor MPs will publicly call on him to reverse the decision.

If he still refuses, pro-Burnham members of the Cabinet will threaten open rebellion.

Mr Burnham is understood to be reserving the ‘nuclear option’ of quitting as Manchester mayor while ‘waiting to be let in’.

Poll results released on Saturday gave Mr Burnham the only positive approval rating of any senior Labor politician.

Mr Burnham received a plus-20 rating in the poll by Opinium, followed by Defense Secretary John Healey and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper with a minus-6 rating.

Last night a Labor source said: ‘I expect Keir to say Andy could return – but not until the end of Parliament.’

Other developments on a dramatic day in politics:

• Cabinet ministers Yvette Cooper, Lisa Nandy, Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood made neutral post-election statements and clearly failed to support the Prime Minister;
• Sir Keir has prepared another ‘renewal’ speech to be delivered on Monday; Although this speech has been kept secret from even his most loyal ministers, sources expect it to include a call for closer relations with the EU;
• Health Allies Minister Wes Streeting has said he could surpass both Reform and the Greens as Labor leader, given Labor retains Redbridge council in his constituency but loses overall control in Tameside, where Angela Rayner is MP;
• MPs expected Ms Rayner to offer a cryptic critique of Sir Keir’s performance as a prelude to her leadership bid; Meanwhile, amid claims it has lost momentum following reports that it was ‘destroyed’ in a House of Commons bar;
• Kemi Badenoch planned to use the Conservatives’ success in the capital as a ‘bridgehead’ to wrest the London mayoralty from Labour’s Sadiq Khan;
• Reform leader Nigel Farage has vowed to defend the Union ‘robustly’ if he becomes Prime Minister.

Sir Keir welcomes new Special Envoy for Global Finance Gordon Brown to No10 Downing Street

Sir Keir Starmer also appointed Harriet Harman, another holdover from the Blair and Ed Miliband years, as the Prime Minister’s Adviser on Women and Girls.

Sir Keir resisted calls to resign following the “tough” local election results and said he “will not give up and plunge the country into chaos”.

He claimed the appointments of Mr Brown as special envoy for global finance and Ms Harman as adviser on tackling violence against women and girls were ‘very forward-looking’.

She said Ms Harman’s job would be to ensure ‘every woman has the opportunities they deserve’; Mr Brown will help find more money for defense ‘based on international mechanisms’ and help ‘build the strong economy of the future’.

Sources said the plan to appoint the duo was hatched in January in anticipation of last week’s poor results.

But Mr Farage said of Mr Brown’s appointment: ‘An unpopular prime minister who lost the general election is now seen as a savior by Starmer.’

Former Labor MP Karl Turner, now an independent, said: ‘There is always a role for Gordon in the party. It is the party. But he can’t teach that to Starmer. It either exists or it doesn’t. And Starmer doesn’t have that.”

Mr Burnham’s supporters insist he can win the seat he has chosen despite Reform’s underperformance in the North.

One ally said: ‘We are not stupid. We’re not just going to throw it out there. We hold our own private vote. He will win.’

But Graham Stringer, an MP since 1997, warned Mr Burnham’s plans could lead to further unrest.

He said: ‘His fox was shot. The rise of reform in the North means it is not a safe place. This is all about Andy’s career, not the party.

‘He will make himself very unpopular if he quits the mayoralty and gives Reform a platform in Manchester.

‘I think he started running because he had too many false starts and now he feels like he needs to stick with it.’

An ally of Mr Streeting said a Reform and Green win in Mr Burnham’s Manchester heartland would ‘take some of the stardust off Andy’.

Sources said the Health Secretary would not make a bid for the leader while Sir Keir was Prime Minister, but would make one if he was ousted.

A Labor Party source also warned that MPs ‘will not accept Andy Burnham’s coronation’.

Wall of silence as cabinet ministers fail to show support for faltering Prime Minister

Written by: Gabriel Millard-Clothier, Political Correspondent

Support for the Prime Minister was conspicuously lacking in the moderate statements made by Cabinet ministers following the humiliation in the local elections.

Three months ago the Cabinet rallied around Sir Keir Starmer after Scottish Labor leader Anas Sarwar called for him to go.

Following the crackdown on Labor last week, MPs are lining up to demand the Prime Minister’s resignation. Far-left power broker Louise Haigh, among others, said he should resign unless he could deliver ‘significant and urgent change’.

However, Shabana Mahmood, Lisa Nandy, Ed Miliband and Yvette Cooper visibly refused to support the Prime Minister in statements made on social media platform X.

Home Secretary Ms Mahmood wrote: ‘Good public servants, colleagues and friends have lost their seats.’

Culture Minister Ms Nandy and Foreign Affairs Minister Ms Cooper similarly recognized those who lost their seats but did not openly support their leaders.

Climate Minister Mr Miliband expressed voters’ anger at the ‘deterioration of the economic and political status quo’.

All four are big monsters in the Cabinet and will play key roles in any leadership tilt.

Mr Miliband, MP for Doncaster North, had privately told Sir Keir to set a timetable for his departure but this will be his first public display of disloyalty.

He regularly tops Labor Party members’ polls and is expected to play a ‘king-making’ role in the leadership contest.

The Climate Minister is said to want to become Chancellor in return for his support.

Ms Nandy is also a major force on Labour’s hard Left; although he would be the favorite to be sacked in any reshuffle. He has significant support among left-wing groups in Labour’s backbenches.

Ms Mahmood is a leading figure in the ‘Blue Labour’ group and is popular on the right of the party.

The lack of cabinet support indicates the Prime Minister’s declining popularity with both wings of his party and the danger he faces from all sides.