‘No other plan comes close’: how Labour MPs turned to Burnham with Starmer on the brink

When the eyes of Westminster were on the committee rooms and voting lobbies of parliament this week, Keir Starmer’s political future was being decided elsewhere. Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner were buttering up Labour MPs in the Strangers’ Bar in parliament as colleagues spoke of their “existential” fear about the crucial elections next week. Starmer, meanwhile, tried to calm backbenchers’ nerves as he did the rounds in the members-only smoking room and his private office behind the Commons chamber. One former minister said the mood was so dark that several MPs refused to meet the leader, saying: “We don’t want to be seen with him.” Andy Burnham was 800 miles away in Madrid as Starmer’s future dominated Westminster. But allies of the Greater Manchester mayor were ramping up his leadership campaign and said his return to parliament – and become the next prime minster – could happen “within weeks”. Burnham has been quietly preparing his manifesto. Those close to the mayor said he would launch an explicit programme for government when he fights his eventual parliamentary byelection campaign, with several possible seats identified in Greater Manchester and Merseyside. Pledges would include sweeping reforms to the electoral system – backing the introduction of proportional representation across the UK – as well as a decade-long vision to transform local services, higher defence spending and an overhaul of inheritance tax to pay for Britain’s creaking social care system. …