Wes Streeting has called on Sir Keir Starmer to set a timetable for his resignation from Downing Street, hours before the result of the Makerfield by-election is expected to hand Andy Burnham a path back to Parliament and a challenge for the Labour leadership.
The former health secretary, speaking after a speech on his own priorities as a future prime minister, said he hoped Burnham wins and added: “I would hope that after Thursday's by-election, when the results are in… I hope the prime minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable. I think that would be a better way forward for everyone.”
“Wes Streeting urges Starmer to set resignation timetable as Andy Burnham eyes return via Makerfield by-election.”
Burnham, the frontrunner to replace Starmer, will find out early on Friday morning if he has won the seat and with it the chance to return to Westminster. The by-election was triggered after the previous MP stood down, and polls suggest Reform is heading for defeat, with the Greens languishing on 5 per cent according to a Convergent Opinion survey.
Streeting, who resigned from Starmer’s cabinet last month, said he had “no doubt” there would be a Labour leadership contest, even if Starmer refused to go. He insisted he had the support of the 80-odd MPs necessary to be on the ballot paper. Asked whether he would trigger a contest himself, he said he had waited as “one of the inevitable candidates is on the ballot paper. And had I tried to pull a fast one and get ahead of Andy Burnham before he came back, I think that would have been foul play.”
The prime minister, speaking at the G7 summit in France, hit back, insisting he would prove his rivals wrong and “carry on with what I was elected to do”. Sir Keir also said he would “bring back the change that people desperately need” after the by-election.
Meanwhile, the Greens appear to have all but conceded defeat in Makerfield. Party insiders described the seat as “not a strong area for us”, though they noted candidate Sarah Wakefield had “gone down well”, particularly after her performance on Question Time where she challenged Reform’s Robert Kenyon over his previous social media posts. The party is instead betting on a Burnham victory, and has already begun planning for a hypothetical Greater Manchester mayoral race should Burnham win — a contest the Greens would contest with their chief London organiser, Elfrede Brambley-Crawshaw, running the campaign.
Streeting, in a move likely to raise eyebrows among some Labour members, also called for the return of ex-Tory chancellor Nigel Lawson’s system of tax reliefs for founders of “fast-growing, UK domiciled businesses”. He ruled out an early general election, saying Labour had a “mandate for a five year parliament”, and confirmed the triple lock on pensions was “here to stay” until at least the next election, due in 2029.