Prime Minister Keir Starmer has seemingly cleared the way for former Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to walk into 10 Downing Street with an emotional resignation speech on the all-too-familiar Downing Street front porch this morning.
Starmer used the speech to highlight key achievements of his premiership, including falling NHS waiting lists, increased defence spending and reduced immigration, legal and illegal, but, fighting back tears, he added that ultimately: “The question my party is asking now is whether I am best placed to lead us into the next general election. I have heard the answer of my parliamentary party to that question, and I accept that answer with good grace.
“Every decision I’ve taken has been about putting the country I love first. That is why I will resign as leader of the Labour party. I have spoken to His Majesty the King this morning to inform him of my decision.”
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Burnham secured almost 25,000 votes to win the Makerfield by-election last Thursday, setting up a potential leadership challenge against Starmer. Burnham beat Reform UK’s candidate by 9,231 votes on a 59% turnout, bringing a swift halt to Reform’s national surge – it had last month won every sit in the Wigan council constituency where Makerfield sits – and increasing murmurings from within Whitehall that he was set to take on the PM.
Burnham said in a rousing acceptance speech in the early hours of Friday morning that and said in his acceptance speech that the win represented a “final chance to change” and this “could be the turning point.”
At the time, Starmer wrote on X: “Congratulations, @AndyBurnhamGM, Labour’s new MP for Makerfield. Voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”
The sitting PM was initially optimistic about seeing off any challenge from Burnham, or the less fancied former health secretary Wes Streeting, but cabinet and wider party support appears to have ebbed significantly over the weekend.
Starmer said this morning that nominations for his replacement would open on 9th July, with a new leader in place by, at the latest, parliament’s return from summer recess on 1st September. If, as widely predicted, Burnham is unopposed he could take the keys to Number 10 before the break begins on 16th July. The existing PM will remain in post until the process is complete.
Burnham hasn’t even been sworn in as an MP yet – he was due on the Piccadilly to Euston train at around 11am after bidding farewell to his mayoral staff in Manchester, from where he Tweeted that he will indeed, to no one’s surprise, be standing as leader. The other burning question arising from the latest Downing Street drama is who will be the next Greater Manchester Mayor. Salford Mayor Paul Dennett is currently standing in as Burnham settles into what will probably be his brief tenancy in his new MP’s office in Whitehall. The upcoming mayoral election seems likely to draw as much national media attention as the Makerfield by-election before it. Already confirmed as standing is attention seeker general and Workers’ Party of Britain chief George Galloway and the Greens’ Trafford Council councillor Geraldine Coggins, putting paid to rumours that party leader Zack Polanski would stand. More to follow as candidates are announced, but the odds on Reform standing some kind of Z-list celebrity are short.
