LONDON — Wes Streeting looks poised to challenge Keir Starmer’s leadership of Britain’s ruling Labour Party. Now the health secretary’s critics are racing to get an opponent in the game.
Senior MPs in the soft-left core of the party seem to have settled on Andy Burnham as their candidate to face off against Streeting, who’s firmly on the right of the party, if a contest kicks off as expected.
The problem for Burnham? The Greater Manchester mayor is ineligible to run for the leadership. First he must get a seat in parliament.
Two of his supporters told POLITICO there is now a plan afoot to force a by-election in early June so Burnham, a former government minister who quit as an MP in 2017, can return to the Commons in time to enter a leadership race.
“Andy can absolutely contest. A timetable can be accommodated that would allow a by-election to take place by early June,” a senior Burnham-backing MP told POLITICO. They were granted anonymity like others in this article to speak about live discussions.
“It would be outrageous to block the most popular politician in the country from standing,” they added.
Burnham’s allies insist they do have a seat lined up for him to contest, a move which would likely require a serving Labour MP to stand aside. Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee has signaled it would be less likely to block a Burnham candidacy again, as they did in January.
But whether even Burnham, who has been nicknamed the “King of the North” thanks to his popular support around Manchester, could win what would be a fierce challenge from opponents on the right and the left-wing Greens in a by-election is another matter.
The latest round of infighting in the Labour Party was triggered by last Thursday’s dismal results in the elections in English councils and devolved administrations in Wales and Scotland.
More than 90 Labour MPs called for Starmer to quit, including four ministers who resigned to demand his demise. Streeting is seen as a major agitator for the PM’s ousting.
Starmer held private talks in Downing Street with Streeting on Wednesday morning lasting less than 20 minutes. It didn’t take long after Streeting emerged from the meeting for a report in the Times to land, in which his allies said he planned to resign as health secretary in order to run for the leadership.
Three Labour MPs told POLITICO they had been informed by Streeting’s camp that he plans to resign and challenge the PM, with one saying that will happen as early as Thursday.
If Burnham cannot enter parliament to challenge Streeting, then his supporters are looking to Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister who still needs to resolve a tax issue, or Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, as the soft-left standard bearer.
Miliband, who led Labour to electoral defeat in 2015, is already organising and sounding out support from colleagues, according to one soft-left MP.
Another figure in government who is preparing a bid is Al Carns, the armed forces minister. “He is definitely open to running. He won’t be disloyal, but if someone fires a starting gun he is not shy of gunfire,” one MP in his camp said of the special forces veteran.
Burnham’s return is further complicated by parliamentary process. By-elections are held 21 to 27 working days after the writ triggering the contest is moved in the Commons. That’s a process controlled by the government whips.
Dan Bloom contributed to reporting.
