The Prime Minister has repeatedly vowed to fight any leadership challenge, insisting he will not ‘walk away’.
Pressure is piling on Sir Keir Starmer after Andy Burnham stormed to victory in the Makerfield by-election, with the number of Labour MPs who have called for him to set out plans to quit Downing Street reaching 100.
Calls for Sir Keir to go have been building since Labour took a hammering in May’s local elections, and now marks around a quarter of the party’s 403 MPs.
The Prime Minister has repeatedly vowed to fight any leadership challenge, insisting he will not “walk away”.
But Mr Burnham’s by-election victory has prompted more backbenchers and Labour grandees to call for Sir Keir to stand down.
Some MPs who had signed a statement rejecting calls for a leadership election last month have now reversed their position, while former home secretary Alan Johnson told LBC his message to the Prime Minister would be: “It’s over, Keir.”
Sir Keir is understood to have spoken to a number of Cabinet ministers on Friday, some of whom are reported to have told him he should set out a timetable for his departure.
Some in Westminster believe a contest could begin as early as next week, but allies of Mr Burnham favour a longer wait to allow them to prepare for government.
Former transport secretary Louise Haigh, one of his supporters, said after his by-election victory: “We really hope that this can be a managed and orderly transition and Keir Starmer will reflect on the results, and Andy and Keir can meet in the coming days, and over the next week, and agree a path forward.”
It is understood that Mr Burnham’s camp wants Sir Keir to set out his plans in the coming days but would accept a timetable that kept him in No 10 until September.
But former deputy leader Baroness Harriet Harman has urged the party to move faster, telling Sky News’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast ministers could not be left “in a state of paralysis all through the summer”.
She said there is a “sense of collective movement” from within Labour.
She added: “I think it’s going to happen – that Andy Burnham is going to become prime minister.
“Keir Starmer is going to be leaving office.”
Jess Phillips, who quit as a minister last month, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she was looking forward to Mr Burnham arriving in Westminster on Monday and seeing prospective leadership candidates setting out their stall to Labour MPs.
The Birmingham Yardley MP said Mr Burnham had “proved his hypothesis” that he could take on Reform UK by winning in Makerfield.
She added: “He beat off Reform absolutely soundly in an area that absolutely should have been delivered to Reform and if anyone else had stood there, we would not be having this conversation now … I think he has earned the right to come and make his case to the Parliamentary Labour Party.”
Peter Swallow, one of more than 100 MPs who signed a letter backing Sir Keir just last month, is among those who have withdrawn support.
The Bracknell MP told Newsnight that “it is now the right time for the Prime Minister to resign and hand over to someone else” and said he would be “backing Andy”.
Meanwhile, Mr Johnson told LBC that the Prime Minister now has to step aside.
He said: “I’d say it’s over, Keir. And listen, he’s a bright guy. He knows it’s over. He will forever be in the history books as the man who turned us around, Labour, from the second-worst result in our history to the second best result in our history in one five-year period.”
Labour peer Charlie Falconer said Sir Keir has “absolutely no authority” because “everybody assumes” Mr Burnham is going to challenge him and win.
He said he would advise Sir Keir not to stand in a leadership contest and instead agree a handover, preferably before the parliamentary recess on July 16.
“There should be an agreed transition process in which Andy and Keir cooperate as to when the handover should take place,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
But Sir Keir appeared to be digging in, warning Labour staffers during a call on Friday lunchtime to avoid “plunging our party and our country into chaos by turning on each other and tearing apart our party and our movement”.
It is understood he has also amassed a campaign war chest to fight any leadership challenge with the backing of a group of private donors, as first reported by The Times.
Fundraising has ramped up in the last two days with total pledges running into six figures, sources said.
Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told Sky News he did not understand Sir Keir’s strategy.
He said: “I don’t understand what Keir Starmer’s strategy is in this other than saying he’s going to fight it, but not doing anything very obvious to fight it. I just wonder if we’re not going to witness a coronation of Andy Burnham in a few days’ time.”
The Islington North MP said it was “very strange” that there had been no policy debate so far.
Sir Keir and his backers in the Parliamentary Labour Party have stressed the need to focus on the by-election for the Greater Manchester mayoralty triggered by Mr Burnham’s election.
That by-election is scheduled to take place on July 30, with Labour set to announce its candidate on June 26.
The party is already pitching the contest as a two-horse race between Labour and Reform UK, but the Greens will look to build on their success in the Gorton and Denton by-election with a strong challenge of their own.
