Camilla Turner, Sabrina Miller and Dominic Penna
Allies of Sir Keir Starmer believe he is preparing to step down after facing an evaporation of support over the weekend.
A senior government figure told The Telegraph the embattled prime minister was realising that the “game is up” and his thoughts were turning to how he could “shore up his legacy”.
They said there had been “quite a bit of movement” among Cabinet ministers since Andy Burnham’s Makerfield by-election victory, leading Starmer to reconsider his previous commitment to soldiering on.
One Labour MP, who is usually considered to be a loyalist to the prime minister, said he believed Starmer would announce his departure date as soon as Monday, given that his support among MPs was now down to only a handful of “friends and family”.
“There’s no one left. Literally people whose relatives work in No. 10 or people who are long-term personal friends of Starmer’s are pretty much the only ones left,” they said, adding that trying to stand in the way of Burnham’s path to Downing Street was “like trying to fight gravity”.
One government figure predicted that “something will have happened by the end of the week”, warning that if Starmer did not resign “we could end up in mass resignation territory”.
Another government source said Starmer was reflecting on his future over the weekend, adding that “the sorts of people” who were now telling him that his time was up were “different – they are not the usual suspects”.
A former loyal MP who was publicly backing the prime minister as recently as last month said that he believed Starmer was “a goner”, adding: “Andy can do it without a contest, he’s got a good story, and is better for building a broad coalition come a general election.”
One ally told The Sun newspaper: “I think there is just a 25 per cent chance he fights on now.”
Burnham was said to have the support of close to 300 MPs, with his allies saying the scale of his support meant a coronation would be “inevitable”.
The prime minister is being urged by Cabinet ministers and MPs, many of whom were previously staunch loyalists, to set out a timetable for his departure, rather than fight a leadership contest.
Five senior Cabinet ministers have privately urged Starmer to set out a timetable: the Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander, did so on Friday, while Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper delivered a similar message. Shabana Mahmood, the Home Secretary, and Starmer’s old friend Ed Miliband have previously told him to go.
PM at risk of ‘humiliating himself’
One government source told the BBC that “it’s nuts” to imagine Starmer could beat Burnham in a leadership battle, with a Cabinet source saying they would not want to see him “humiliate himself” in a contest.
Jonathan Reynolds, his chief whip, told Starmer on Friday that there was a growing desire among backbenchers for an orderly transition of power to Burnham, the Financial Times reported.
Even one of Starmer’s most staunch supporters said: “Some big decisions need to be made in the next few weeks and months, and they shouldn’t be made when people are angry or tired or being wound up by others with a vested interest in the Labour Party losing the next election.”
One friend of the prime minister told The Observer: “He sees the realities. Stopping ‘chaos’ (as he rightly put it) is now not possible by staying, so that only leaves one option.
“I think he has come to see it as the dutiful option to serve the country and the party.”
There is growing speculation that Wes Streeting is preparing to concede to Burnham in exchange for a Cabinet position, despite a member of his campaign team insisting that the former health secretary was “ready to go” with a leadership challenge.
“He has got a website, he has done a launch video, his slogan is ‘We Still Can’,” they said.
But allies of Streeting talked up his friendship with Burnham, saying they “get on pretty well”, and disclosing that they met in Makerfield on Monday and spoke on Friday evening. However, the sources denied that any deal had been made between the two men.
A Labour source said: “The single biggest problem for both Andy and Wes is the PM is still in post. Andy and Wes are not out and about this weekend.
“Both are giving Keir the space to come to the right conclusion which is that it is not good for him, the party or the country to contest the challenge. That is preferable to having to drag him out.”
Downing Street sources insisted that Starmer stood by his remarks on Friday when he pledged to stay on as prime minister and fight any leadership contest.
They said he would be “out and about” next week and had at least one domestic policy announcement planned at the start of the week.
Starmer is understood to be spending the weekend in Chequers, his countryside retreat, with his wife, Lady Starmer, while he weighs up his options.
The Telegraph, London
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