United Kingdom: Keir Starmer set to step down

Burnham has kept a low profile in recent days, awaiting Starmer’s decisions. The hugely popular newly-elected MP has made it clear that he does not want an internal party battle and would prefer a peaceful and smooth handover, even though he already has the 81 MPs needed to trigger a leadership challenge on his side. His team hopes that the Prime Minister will resign and hand over the keys to Downing Street, or at the very least set out a timetable for his departure, perhaps at the party conference in September.

The contrast between the two Labour politicians is clear: Burnham is an instinctive politician with great charisma and an innate ability to connect with people. A member of the Labour Party since the age of 16 and a committed activist, after holding numerous ministerial posts in the governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, he left Westminster to return to his roots, becoming mayor of Manchester. Re-elected three times, during his nearly ten years in office he revitalised the city’s economy and successfully implemented an urban regeneration programme, earning himself enormous popularity. He now wants to use the same ‘magic formula’ to revive the British economy and convince voters that the Labour Party has something to offer, but it remains to be seen whether he will manage to win popular support at a national level.

Starmer had secured a landslide majority in Parliament less than two years ago after shifting the party towards the centre and promising rapid ‘change’ and, above all, competence, stability and seriousness – in contrast to the chaos of recent Tory governments. However, the former lawyer and Attorney General, who had entered politics relatively late in life, had proved a disappointment in government, coming across as too cautious and indecisive and, above all, unable to connect with the public. His popularity has plummeted, even more so than that of the party.

Many Labour MPs and several Labour ministers now believe that only Burnham, with his energy and charisma, can prevent the party from suffering defeat in the next general election and, above all, can stem the rise of Reform, the right-wing, anti-EU and anti-immigration party led by Nigel Farage.

Makerfield has shown that, at least at a local level, Burnham is capable of beating Reform. In the local elections in May, Farage’s party had won over 50 per cent of the vote in a constituency that had historically been a Labour stronghold. In Thursday’s by-election, the Labour candidate secured 55 per cent of the vote – more than all the other parties combined – whilst Reform managed only 35 per cent.