Starmer refuses to step down to make way for Burnham

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to quit as prime minister to make way for Andy Burnham after his by-election victory in Makerfield, taking a defiant stance as he warned that a leadership contest could “tear apart” the Labour Party.

Starmer used a call with Labour staff at lunchtime on Friday to urge colleagues to “pull together” after Burnham’s success and avoid “plunging our party and our country into chaos by turning on each other”.

Earlier on Friday, the prime minister insisted he would fight the outgoing Greater Manchester mayor to keep his job. “If there is a contest then yes, I will run, I will stand,” he said.

Burnham’s overwhelming victory in the Makerfield by-election has turbocharged his campaign to topple Starmer, paving the way for him to return to Westminster and become Britain’s seventh prime minister in the past decade.

Speaking after winning a 9,231 Labour majority over Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, Burnham made it clear that he would now be marching south on Number 10: “I do say to my own party: this is a final chance for change.”

The contest in Makerfield, a white working-class seat between Manchester and Liverpool, could prove pivotal in British politics, as Burnham showed his party that Labour can still beat Reform in its traditional heartlands.

For Farage’s party it was a serious setback, with the far-right nativist Restore Britain party starting to eat into its vote.

The result saw Burnham secure more than half the votes cast with 24,927, Reform’s Robert Kenyon 15,696 and Restore’s Rebecca Shepherd 3,111. At 58.7 per cent, turnout was unusually high for a by-election, following an intense Labour campaign.

The result, declared in The Edge exhibition hall within yards of the famous Wigan Pier, will reverberate across a political system that has appeared constantly on the edge of crisis since the Brexit vote almost exactly 10 years ago.

Many Labour MPs, despairing of Starmer’s stumbling leadership and dismal poll ratings, believe Burnham will make voters look again at their party. The former Labour minister and outgoing mayor is a strong communicator and advocate of “business-friendly socialism”.

In a victory speech on Friday morning, Burnham rejected “trickle-down economics”, called for re-industrialisation and a “Buy British” approach to public procurement in Whitehall.

“This is our last chance for change and we are going to take that opportunity and we are going to lay out a new path for Britain,” he said. “We have an opportunity to turn the tide.”

The UK’s borrowing costs have climbed higher since Friday’s open, with the 10-year gilt yield up 0.08 percentage points to 4.83 per cent. Yields rise as prices fall.

But the moves were not just down to UK political developments. Higher than expected UK borrowing figures published on Friday have weighed on gilts, while the postponement of peace talks between the US and Iran has fanned inflation worries.

Burnham, a Treasury minister in Gordon Brown’s Labour government, has tried to reassure bond markets during the campaign that he will stick to the government’s fiscal rules.

He will take his seat at Westminster next week but his team expects him to talk to Starmer over the weekend to try to persuade the prime minister to set a date for his exit.

Louise Haigh, a former cabinet minister who has been managing Burnham’s campaign, told the BBC she hoped Starmer would reflect on the by-election result and local election results from six weeks ago. “I hope that he will consider an orderly and managed transition.”

At just after 6am, Starmer said on social media: “Congratulations, Andy Burnham, Labour’s new MP for Makerfield. Voters chose Labour’s campaign of hope and optimism over division and hate.”

He later claimed that the result was “a really, really good outcome” and that the Labour victory in Makerfield had shown that Reform was “on the run.” He added: “The tide is turning.”

Most Labour MPs believe that Starmer, one of the most unpopular prime ministers in polling history, will struggle to head off the insurgency from Burnham.

If the prime minister follows through on his vow to fight for his job — his name would automatically go on to the ballot paper — it would set up a potentially bitter and divisive contest.

If Burnham succeeds, he would be the UK’s seventh prime minister since the country voted 10 years ago to leave the EU, following David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and now Starmer.

Starmer will now hold talks with ministerial colleagues and senior MPs to see if he has the support to carry on. One senior cabinet minister said: “The view among some colleagues is that it’s over.”

The minister added: “You’ll start to see resignations in the coming days. I’m sceptical that Keir can carry on.”

Another minister said: “I don’t see how he can fight on — it will be embarrassing.”

Starmer is seen by colleagues as a stubborn and proud man. Some will urge him to set a date for his departure around the time of Labour’s conference in September to give him time to secure a legacy and exit gracefully.

The UK-EU summit, now set for July 22, could be seen as a significant moment for Starmer, who could exit saying he was repairing some of the damage of the 2016 Brexit vote.

Starmer loyalist Steve Reed, housing secretary, urged Burnham to pull back from challenging the prime minister. “Nobody wants to see a big battle inside the Labour Party,” he told the BBC. “The public don’t like psychodrama in their politics.”

There were two other by-elections held on Thursday, both in Scotland. The Conservatives achieved a shock victory over the Scottish National Party in Aberdeen South, while the SNP held on to the Arbroath and Broughty Ferry seat.

In Aberdeen South, the Scottish Conservatives won a Westminster by-election for the first time in more than 50 years. The party took the seat from the SNP, fighting on a campaign to reinvigorate North Sea oil and gas drilling.