KEIR Starmer has warned his leadership rivals against triggering a contest, saying instead the party should focus on a mayoral by-election in Manchester if Andy Burnham returns to Westminster.
It comes after reports that he could face a leadership contest as early as next week after Wes Streeting suggested he would give Starmer time over the weekend to evaluate his future if Andy Burnham wins in Thursday's Makerfield by-election.
The former health secretary insisted he has the backing of the 80 MPs required to stand in a contest and accused Starmer of not listening to the party or his Cabinet in a series of public appearances on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister said he would prove his rivals wrong and “carry on with what I was elected to do” and “bring back the change that people desperately need” as he fights for his political future.
Speaking on Wednesday from France, Starmer said any attempt to oust him would be a "bad thing" for the country and reiterated that he intended to fight any challenge.
He added that the potential mayoral election would be "very important" and that his party were "going to have to pull our sleeves up to make sure that there is another Labour victory," maintaining that he still hopes that Burnham wins the seat.
Streeting has said that he wants Starmer to make a decision to leave “on his own terms” after the June 18 vote, leaving him and Burnham as the current front runners.
But pressed on whether he would trigger a contest if Starmer stayed put, as he has made clear he wants to, the former minister told BBC Newsnight: “We can’t carry on with this uncertainty and paralysis, and there will need to be a contest, and I’d be prepared to do that.”
On how soon he would be willing to mount a challenge, Streeting said he did not want to “get into, ‘is it Monday, is it Tuesday'”, but that Starmer should be given “space over the weekend” to consider his position.
Asked if he would still challenge Starmer if Burnham failed to win the Makerfield by-election, he told LBC’s Andrew Marr show: “Yes, I believe we need a change of leadership and if Andy Burnham isn’t back, I still believe we need that change of leadership.”
Criticising the Prime Minister, Streeting told Sky News’ The Cathy Newman Show: “I don’t think he’s listening to his former defence secretary, I don’t think he’s listening to military chiefs, I don’t think he’s listening to our Nato allies.
“In terms of the Labour Party, I don’t think he’s listening to his Cabinet, I don’t think he’s listening to the parliamentary party and I don’t think he’s listening to voters, who only in May sent the Labour Party that extremely humbling message at the ballot box.”
Speaking to reporters earlier at a press conference in central London where he outlined his economic vision, the senior Labour figure said: “There is a huge amount of talent on the front bench and the back bench of the parliamentary Labour Party.
“It isn’t used nearly well enough, and the divides between Labour’s different tribes are often overstated.
“I think we all have a shared sense of what’s wrong. I think we have different views about how to put it right, but at the end of it, we need to come together.”
Streeting’s diagnosis is that Labour is suffering from three problems at the moment: with leadership, with policy, and with culture.
He continued: “I would hope that after Thursday’s by-election, when the results are in, and I very much hope Andy Burnham wins – I was there yesterday campaigning for him again – when the results are in, I hope the Prime Minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable.
“I think that would be a better way forward for everyone, and would enable that better culture that we aspire to.”
Meanwhile, former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner heaped praise on Burnham’s by-election campaign, saying he was winning over voters with a “new type of politics” in an interview with the Mirror.
She sidestepped questions on whether she would back the Greater Manchester mayor but said it was “hard to escape the feeling that the public have had towards Keir”.
Asked if it was too late to achieve the change needed under Starmer's leadership, she said: “I don’t think it’s too late for the Labour Party to deliver that, and that’s a different question.
“I know I’m not answering your question direct. I think that it’s hard to escape the feeling that the public have had towards Keir.”
The Prime Minister was asked about threats to his leadership by reporters as he attended the G7 summit in France.
“So very many times on my political journey, people have said to me it’s not possible,” he said.
“They said it’s not possible to turn the Labour Party around. It’s not possible to win an election.
“It’s not possible if you do win election, to invest in your public services and stabilise the economy – wrong every time, and that’s why I intend not to walk away from this, but to carry on with what I was elected to do, which is to serve this country, bring back the change that people desperately need in their lives.”
