Sir Keir Starmer is weighing up his political future as pressure grows on him to announce his resignation.<\/p>\n
It comes as cabinet ally Peter Kyle said the prime minister was considering \u201cpolitical realities\u201d after Andy Burnham\u2019s victory in the Makerfield by-election last week cleared a path for him to challenge for the Labour leadership.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the result, the prime minister has faced fresh pleas from senior ministers to effectively make way for Burnham by setting out a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n
And in a further blow to the embattled Labour leader, US President Donald Trump said Sir Keir \u201cwill resign as prime minister\u201d, as he attacked his record in office.<\/p>\n
In a social media post, Trump said Sir Keir had \u201cfailed badly\u201d on immigration and energy policy, as he repeated his calls to \u201copen North Sea oil\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI wish him well!\u201d<\/p>\n
No 10 told the BBC the two leaders, who last saw each other at a G7 summit in France last week, had not spoken over the weekend.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath of Burnham\u2019s victory, Sir Keir continued to insist he would fight any formal leadership bid, meaning a contest in which Labour members and affiliated trade union supporters decide on the party\u2019s future would be needed.<\/p>\n
But in a shift in tone, Kyle, the business secretary, told the BBC\u2019s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the prime minister was \u201ctaking the time to think through what the political realities are today, compared to last week and the week before\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said he had spoken to Sir Keir on Friday and was sure that \u201cevery decision he makes today\u201d about Labour\u2019s future would reflect \u201cwhat\u2019s in the best interests of the country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kyle said he did not want to \u201cbe delusional that there is no process\u201d and \u201cno forces at work\u201d that were challenging Sir Keir as party leader.<\/p>\n
While using a formal process to change leader was \u201cbetter wherever possible\u201d, this needed to be balanced against the need to maintain the government\u2019s authority \u201cthrough any processes that may unfold\u201d, he added.<\/p>\n
The 2020 leadership race that led to Sir Keir being made Labour leader took six weeks, with some Labour MPs expressing concerns that disagreements that would accompany a similar contest could further damage the party\u2019s prospects.<\/p>\n
Concerns have also been raised that this could create unnecessary uncertainty for the markets and delay key government decisions.<\/p>\n
Burnham was able to fend off a challenge from Reform UK in Makerfield on Thursday and increase Labour\u2019s majority, bucking a recent trend of electoral losses.<\/p>\n
Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper have since urged Sir Keir to set out an exit timetable, it is understood.<\/p>\n
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Energy Secretary Ed Miliband had already done the same in the aftermath of devastating results for Labour in a series of elections last month. Scores of Labour MPs have also publicly urged Sir Keir to resign immediately or draw up an exit timetable.<\/p>\n
Burnham, who is understood to be spending time with his family this weekend, is expected to travel to Westminster on Monday to formally take up his seat as an MP.<\/p>\n
His allies urged the prime minister to reflect over the weekend and listen to his cabinet ministers, MPs and his family.<\/p>\n
Among those supporting Burnham was Labour MP Helen Hayes, the chair of the Education Select Committee.<\/p>\n
Speaking on Radio 4\u2019s The Westminster Hour, the Labour MP said the \u201cvictory we saw last week in Makerfield was truly extraordinary\u201d.<\/p>\n
Asked whether there should be a contest or a coronation, Hayes said she did not have a preference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAndy feels confident in what he\u2019s offering to the country, based on the contest that we\u2019ve just seen in Makerfield. I think he would do very well if there was a contest,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe PM has faced a catastrophic drop in popularity, we need to make a change.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was wide expectation on the front pages of Monday\u2019s newspapers that change was coming soon, with reports saying Sir Keir was poised to set out a timetable for his departure.<\/p>\n
Former Health Secretary Wes Streeting, a potential leadership rival to Burnham, has previously said he would join any contest, arguing the party needed to undergo a \u201cbattle of ideas\u201d over its future direction.<\/p>\n
Jess Phillips, who was one of four ministers to quit in the immediate aftermath of May\u2019s election results, said: \u201cIt feels like we\u2019ve come to the end of the road.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the former safeguarding minister, seen as a close ally of Streeting, said she hoped the party would find a means to question \u201cwhat\u2019s coming next\u201d even if this did not \u201cend up with a full-scale contest\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just come and take over,\u201d she told Kuenssberg. \u201cYou do have to come and present your ideas to, at the very least, the Parliamentary Labour Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
During the month-long Makerfield campaign, Burnham recommitted to Labour\u2019s manifesto promise not to increase the main rates of income tax, VAT or National Insurance, as well as the borrowing rules set by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.<\/p>\n
He has expressed a desire for \u201cstronger public control\u201d of utilities and repeated previous pledges to replace inheritance tax with a new \u201cnational care levy\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, he has yet to set out his thinking in other policy areas, including on defence spending, while Sir Keir has of late focused his efforts on rewriting government budgets to free up more cash for military investment.<\/p>\n
Labour MP Toby Perkins, who previously served as a shadow minister under Sir Keir, told Kuenssberg he did not want the PM to stand down, adding it would mean the country would have its \u201cseventh prime minister in 10 years\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said Sir Keir \u201cdeserves a bit of time\u201d and that he did not believe the government was \u201cmanifestly failing\u201d, noting it had lowered NHS waiting times, net migration and the asylum backlog.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sir Keir Starmer is weighing up his political future as pressure grows on him to announce his resignation. It comes as cabinet ally Peter Kyle said the prime minister was considering \u201cpolitical realities\u201d after Andy Burnham\u2019s victory in the Makerfield by-election last week cleared a path for him to challenge for the Labour leadership. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144489\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}