Starmer-Burnham latest: PM ‘to weigh up his future this weekend’ after ministers call on him to step down

Pressure is mounting on Keir Starmer as former health minister Alan Johnson tells LBC it is time for the prime minister to resign.

Asked what he would say to the Prime Minister, Mr Johnson said: “I would say: ‘It’s over, Keir’. And listen, he’s a smart guy. He knows it’s over.”

“He will forever be in the history books as the man who turned us around. workforce“From the second-worst result in our history to the second-best result in our history over a five-year period.”

Transport Minister Heidi Alexander is understood to be the first to tell the Prime Minister to go, other ministers have also said so Independent They plan to tell Sir Keir Starmer that he must set a timetable for the departure of his No 10 Cabinet members, including Yvette Cooper, Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood.

Meanwhile, ministers have confirmed they will tell Sir Keir he should resign, while previous loyalists are also said to be considering intervention. Ms Alexander met Sir Keir on Friday afternoon. Deputy leader Lucy Powell and culture secretary Lisa Nandy are already seen as part of the “Burnham team”.

Former cabinet minister Louise Haigh, a key aide to Mr Burnham, has also called for him to go. “People in Makerfield have shown that they don’t want Reform, they want Labor to change, they want hope and optimism,” he added.

Representations are also expected to be made to former health secretary Wes Streeting to strike a deal with Mr Burnham rather than pushing his own planned leadership bid.

Andy Burnham seizes his second chance to change history. Which is good because he bottled it the first time.

Purnell and Burnham were close friends. Both were special advisors to the Blair government; Both had parachuted into safe Labor seats in the north-west of England in their early thirties, and both had risen to the cabinet before they were 40.

John Hutton, who served in both Blair and Brown’s cabinets, said: Independent “There should be no coronation.”

Lord Hutton said: “We need to know what any new leader will actually do. Managing from within our own comfort zone would be a disaster; there are difficult choices and there is no easy path to stronger economic growth, better defence, welfare reforms and curbing illegal immigration.”

But he said any contest “cannot be prolonged” and that it was “better to get this over with”.

“Changing the leader will probably be the easy part,” he added. “Governing more effectively will be as difficult as Keir Starmer found it.”

The statement win at Makerfield gave Andy Burnham the chance to take on Sir Keir Starmer and become prime minister. What do voters expect from the new MP now? Dan Haygarth learns that:

It’s a sunny Friday morning in Ashton-in-Makerfield, a market town four miles south of Wigan that has spent the past month as the unlikely epicenter of British politics.

This town’s constituency, Makerfield, sent a decisive political message overnight; Which means Mr. Miller is probably right in many respects.

“We were really afraid Labor would collapse if Andy Burnham hadn’t won yesterday,” the retired healthcare worker adds.

“And this would feed the Reformation.”

The Prime Minister said he had yet to speak directly to Mr Burnham since his victory but said he would and had already sent him a congratulatory message.

In a lunchtime meeting with Labor Party staff, he urged them to “get our act together” to move the party towards Nigel Farage’s Reform UK and warned against “turning on each other”.

Sir Keir Starmer said: “The one thing we must not do is turn our party and our movement into chaos by turning on each other and tearing our party and our movement apart.

“That never worked. That’s what the last government did. We need to learn that lesson.”

Firstly, Sir Keir is understood to be amassing a war chest to fund his campaign to combat any leadership challenges, with the support of a group of private donors. Times.

Sources said fundraising has increased over the last two days, with total pledges reaching six figures.

Labor MPs are clamoring for Andy Burnham to be crowned prime minister after his stunning victory in the Makerfield by-election to avoid a protracted leadership battle that could destroy the party’s general election hopes.

But the stubborn Keir Starmer refused to resign and made clear he would oppose any leadership contest, calling on the party to “get its act together” and “avoid plunging the country into chaos”.

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

• YouGov snap poll shows 38 per cent want Starmer to stand down and not take part if a contest is triggered, but 36 per cent think the prime minister should lead himself
• 23 per cent of Britons think Burnham would make a better prime minister than Starmer
• 32 percent predict there will be a change from Starmer if Burnham becomes prime minister, while 43 percent do not think there will be much of a difference

It is understood that the first person to tell the Prime Minister to leave was Minister of State for Transport Heidi Alexander.

Cabinet members, including Yvette Cooper, Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood, are also said to be preparing to repeat their earlier demands for him to do so following Mr Burnham’s victory.