Keir Starmer may award resignation honours when he leaves No 10 | Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer signaled he might do away with the honor of resigning when he left Downing Street, but he vowed not to do so when he finally resigned three years ago.

The Prime Minister has twice refused to rule out making an honorary list if he leaves office in 10 days and is replaced by Andy Burnham.

Starmer, who becomes opposition leader in 2023, criticized Rishi Sunak for allowing Boris Johnson to hand out a range of awards, including knighthoods, to his political allies, saying it was difficult to justify given the circumstances of Johnson’s departure.

Asked at the time if he would have done the same, he said: “No. There are other opportunities… Tony Blair didn’t have a resignation list. It’s very difficult to justify that… There are other ways of doing it and I think it’s easier to be clear about it and simply say no, I wouldn’t do that.”

However, when asked by journalists at the NATO summit in Ankara whether he was determined not to prepare a list, Starmer answered: “We will look at it in the normal process.” When pressed again he gave the same answer.

Prime Ministers are traditionally allowed to nominate people for the honor after they leave Downing Street, but their lists must be approved by their successors and the House of Lords appointments committee.

Liz Truss was given a “resignation honors” list by Sunak, despite being forced to resign from 10th place after just 49 days due to turmoil in financial markets caused by his chancellor’s mini-budget.

Sunak also faced criticism for approving Johnson’s resignation honors list, which included more than 40 names, despite a parliamentary inquiry into whether the former prime minister misled the Commons.

After nominations opened in the uncontested Labor leadership contest to replace Starmer, Burnham collected 322 nominations – equivalent to 80% of the party in parliament – meaning she is almost guaranteed to come in 10th place.

The calculation means there are only 81 Labor MPs left who can nominate another candidate; This is the minimum number required to participate in the vote. However, convention mandates that the outgoing leader must not nominate a candidate; This means there are no longer enough undeclared MPs to support an alternative.

MPs who will nominate Burnham include Rachel Reeves, David Lammy, Yvette Cooper, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner, Lucy Powell, Al Carns, Wes Streeting and Louise Haigh.

Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood and Housing Minister Steve Reed are the two most prominent cabinet ministers who have not nominated Burnham, but there is still time to do so.

The nomination process started on Thursday morning. A number of MPs turned up at Labor parliamentary offices in Westminster to sign nomination forms, with many posting on social media saying they had done so.

Shortly before 11am Burnham posted a short social media video saying he was nominating himself, adding “hopefully third time lucky”, a reference to his unsuccessful bids for the Labor leadership in 2010 and 2015.

Starmer said he believed Burnham would be successful in No 10: “Yes, I do. I have known her for a long time, I worked with her, directly in her team, when I first came to parliament.”

A new leader must also be nominated by at least 5% of all local branches or at least three party-affiliated groups (at least two of which must be unions). Burnham had the support of Unite and the Fire Brigades Association.