Andy Burnham has raised “legitimate concerns” about Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, the mayor of London has said.
Mr Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, made a series of headline-grabbing interventions earlier this week, which have been widely seen as a pitch for a future bid for leadership of the Labour Party.
Mr Burnham said it was up to Labour MPs to decide if they needed a new leader, claiming some had privately been “in touch with me”.
Speaking on an LBC phone-in show on Friday, Sir Sadiq Khan said: “I think Andy’s raising legitimate concerns he has, and, you know, he’s entitled to do so.”
Asked by presenter James O’Brien whether Mr Burnham was going further than that and manoeuvring for leadership of the Labour Party, Sir Sadiq said that was “your characterisation”.
He added: “I think we’ve got 400 MPs, so it won’t be a surprise to anybody that there may be a small minority not happy with the leadership.
“I’m going to conference next week, and the joy of conference when Labour is in Government far outweighs any concerns people may have.”
A source close to Sir Sadiq said he had not been commenting on whether he thought Mr Burnham’s concerns were legitimate, but saying he had a right to raise something if he felt he had legitimate concerns.
They added that the London mayor was “clear” that Sir Keir was the Prime Minister elected by the country and he was “working hard in the best interests of Britain”.
Mr Burnham, a former New Labour minister and ex-MP for Leigh in the North West, accused Downing Street of creating a “climate of fear” as he set out his vision for how to “turn the country around” in a string of interviews which fuelled speculation he could be seeking a return to Westminster.
He said returning to “the old way of doing things in Westminster with minimal change” was an unattractive prospect, but he was ready to “work with anybody who wants to … put in place a plan to turn the country around”.
On Thursday, the Prime Minister appeared to attack his potential leadership rival’s economic agenda, which includes a proposed 50p top rate of income tax and a tax cut for low earners.
Sir Keir drew parallels with Liz Truss, adding that he is “not prepared to let a Labour government ever inflict that harm on working people”.
In a series of interviews with regional broadcasters, Sir Keir also insisted he would “lead from the front” into the next general election.
The Prime Minister heads into the Labour conference after a bruising few weeks in which the departures of both Angela Rayner and Lord Peter Mandelson from Government and a sustained lag behind Reform in the polls sparked questions about his political future.
