Burnham Set to Challenge Starmer for Labour Leadership
Andy Burnham is preparing to launch a challenge for the Labour leadership after securing a clear path back to Parliament, with Keir Starmer declining to block his candidacy in the Makerfield by-election. The Greater Manchester mayor’s move comes as the party is engulfed by a deepening crisis following catastrophic local election losses and a wave of resignations from senior figures.
A Downing Street source, speaking on behalf of the prime minister, said: “Keir is focused on bringing the party together so it can tackle the issues facing working families.” Burnham, who must be a sitting MP to stand for the leadership under party rules, has confirmed he will seek approval from Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) to contest the Makerfield seat. The NEC previously blocked his return to Parliament in January through a vote in its officers’ group, a decision later described by deputy leader Angela Rayner as a mistake. That earlier block was widely seen as an attempt to prevent a leadership challenge. This time, Starmer’s team has signalled it will not intervene.
Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram publicly backed a Burnham leadership bid, declaring that his colleague should be allowed to stand in the by-election. Rotheram, who said he had been “loyal to every Labour leader” since childhood, argued that last week’s local election results had brought concerns “into sharp focus”. “Our party is the greatest organ for social change this country has ever seen,” he added, “but if we carry on down this road, we face an existential threat and risk letting down the very people we are here to represent.”
Resignations and the Motivations Behind Them
The leadership turmoil was dramatically escalated by the resignation of health secretary Wes Streeting, who quit his cabinet role and called on Starmer to step down as prime minister. In his resignation letter, Streeting accused Starmer of overseeing “political drift” and creating a “vacuum” where direction is needed. He stopped short of triggering a formal leadership contest but indicated he wanted to see a “broad range of candidates” stand. Following his departure, Downing Street announced that James Murray would take over as health secretary, with Lucy Rigby becoming chief secretary to the Treasury and Rachel Blake appointed economic secretary to the Treasury.
The by-election in Makerfield was triggered by the resignation of the sitting Labour MP, Josh Simons, who stunned Westminster by giving up a seat he had held for only two years. At 32, Simons has had a meteoric political career: he previously ran the Labour Together think tank that helped put Starmer in power and fuelled the government’s policy programme, served as a ministerial aide, and resigned from his role as parliamentary under-secretary of state for digital government on 1 March 2026. That resignation followed the “Operation Cannon” scandal, in which Simons’s former think tank commissioned the PR firm APCO Worldwide to investigate journalists who had reported on its failure to declare donations. An ethics investigation cleared Simons of breaching the ministerial code but found he had acted “too hastily” and caused reputational damage. Many MPs had privately disparaged him for entangling the government in the affair.
In his resignation letter, Simons said he was putting his constituents first and wanted to create a “shock to the Westminster system”. He had been one of the first Labour figures to publicly call on the prime minister to set a timetable for his departure after the local elections. Burnham supporters praised the decision, with one describing it as “literally put the party and the country first”. Burnham himself hailed “the difficult decision and sacrifice that he and his family are making”. Simons, who recently welcomed a third child, had been supporting Burnham as a potential successor to Starmer for some time, though few expected him to give up his seat so soon after moving his young family to the Makerfield constituency.
Analysis of last week’s local elections showed the scale of the challenge facing Labour in the area: of the ten wards contested on Wigan Council that fall within the Makerfield constituency, Reform candidates won every single one. The Green Party’s leader, Zack Polanski, responded to Burnham’s expected bid by asking which version of the former health secretary would “show up”. “Is it the politician who has been part and parcel of the Labour establishment for decades, abstaining on legislation making brutal cuts to welfare, PFI and other Labour privatisations, or is it the one who has publicly supported proportional representation, been a popular mayor in Manchester?” Polanski said. “The country needs to know if Andy Burnham is serious about breaking out from the terrible orthodoxies of the past, or if he will just be more of the same.”
Polanski himself has been under scrutiny after it emerged he failed to vote in the local elections. The Green Party said he did not register because of “heightened intrusion and safety risk”, including antisemitic cartoons published about him and journalists doorstepping family members. Polanski, who has been the target of antisemitic and homophobic abuse, with two people arrested, is now in talks with police and local authorities about registering to vote anonymously. The party acknowledged that while MPs and councillors are protected under policing initiatives Operation Ford and Operation Bridger, Polanski does not benefit from that protection either as a London Assembly member or as a national party leader. The matter is subject to conversations with the Metropolitan Police. The party also addressed questions about Polanski’s council tax arrangements on a houseboat where he lived for just under four years, saying his living arrangements had been “in flux” and that he was seeking clarity on whether he owed anything.
Liberal Democrat cabinet office spokesperson Lisa Smart condemned the Labour leadership manoeuvring, saying: “The arrogance of these men is staggering. To believe that representing a community is a gift to be handed to your mate shows utterly, out-of-touch contempt. Labour’s internal psychodrama has triggered this by-election so they should pay for the consequences – all £5 million pounds’ worth of the mayoral election.” Meanwhile, Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake seized on Polanski’s failure to vote, stating: “Even Zack Polanski can’t bring himself to vote for the Green Party. This is a bizarre failure and adds to a long list of half truths and blatant lies from Zack Polanski. The Greens are not a serious party.”
Elsewhere at Westminster, Keir Starmer confirmed he would be “open to a conversation” about devolving more powers and proposed a face-to-face meeting with leaders of the devolved governments in June. He made the suggestion during a phone call with Plaid Cymru’s newly installed first minister of Wales, Rhun ap Iorwerth. At Holyrood, 129 newly elected MSPs were sworn in, with the largest cohort of first-time members since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999. In a multilingual gesture, Liberal Democrat MSP Yi-Pei Chou Turvey took her oath in Mandarin, French and English. The parliamentary authorities have stressed a return to in-person working, limiting the remote voting that had been a legacy of the Covid-19 pandemic. Symbolic touches included SNP members wearing white rose buttonholes, Reform members wearing heather, and Green MSPs donning pink gerberas.
Calls for Party Unity
Labour’s deputy leader, Lucy Powell, is expected to deliver a speech on Friday at the Fire Brigades Union conference in which she will urge the party to come together and back Andy Burnham’s return to Parliament. According to prepared remarks, Powell will say that Burnham, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner should all be “key players” in Labour’s team. “The election results last week were deeply painful and difficult for our party, and the aftermath has been unedifying for us all too,” she is expected to say. “We don’t do hostile takeovers in Labour for a reason. Keir is the leader, and I warned against bloody internal battles reflecting badly. If we think we don’t have further to fall, that’s a mistake: we can. We must come back together as one team to take the fight to Farage and show that mainstream progressive politics can bring about the change people are crying out for. That also means doing politics differently. Ending briefing wars, ending factionalism, and representing all our traditions with our strongest team on the pitch – being one Labour team. Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner should all be key players in our team. Andy wants to come back to parliament – I’ve always supported his desire to do so, and I support that again. As deputy leader, I am confident he would have the support of the vast majority of the party and movement in doing so.”