LIVE: Trump wades in on Starmer crisis

Andy Burnham on a run near his home in Cheshire

by David Wilcock, Deputy Political Editor

Wes Streeting heaped fresh pressure on Sir Keir Starmer today as he backed Andy Burnham’s plot to return to Westminster and become prime minister.

Less than 24 hours after quitting as health secretary ahead of an expected run at the top job himself, Mr Streeting said there should be no obstacles to the Greater Manchester mayor standing in the Makerfield by-election.

Mr Burnham last night launched the first stage of what is seen as a campaign to take control of Labour and the country that could put him in No10 by the summer.

If cleared by Labour bigwigs he plans to run in a by-election in the Greater Manchester seat vacated especially for him by incumbent Josh Simons – a former Starmer loyalist.

Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell today suggested that Labour’s National Executive Committee would not stand in Mr Burnham’s way as it had ahead of a by-election in Gorton and Denton earlier this year which Labour lost to the Greens.

Donald Trump has said it would be ‘tough’ for Sir Keir Starmer to survive politically unless he deals with immigration and energy policy.

Speaking on board Air Force One as he returns from a state visit to China, the President said: ‘He’s in a lot of trouble’.

Trump said Sir Keir needed to ‘straighten out immigration’ and open up the North Sea for oil, adding he’s ‘very bad’ on energy.

Asked if he should quit, Trump told reporters:

I don’t say that. I think he’s a nice man, actually. I didn’t like when he said we’re going to send ships [to Iran] as soon as you’re finished with the war.

Watch the Presidents remarks in our video here:

Andy Burnham has been offered a path back to Parliament after a Labour MP stood down, triggering a by-election which he hopes to contest.

Former minister Josh Simons said he planned on resigning to allow the Mayor of Greater Manchester a path to a sensational return to Parliament.

But Nigel Farage has vowed to ‘throw absolutely everything’ at the Makerfield by-election to halt Mr Burnham’s dream of a return to Westminster.

The by-election, should Mr Burnham be allowed to stand as Labour’s candidate, is shaping up to be a big test of the ‘King of the North’ and his local popularity.

But do you think he can win it? Vote in the Daily Mail’s latest poll:

Sir Keir Starmer has visited a police station to discuss operational planning ahead of two protests in London on Saturday.

The Prime Minister was pictured listening to Met Police Commander Clair Haynes during his visit.

More than 4,000 police officers have been drafted in to ensure safety at a pro-Palestine demonstration and Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally.

In addition, the FA Cup final between Chelsea and Manchester City will be played at Wembley.

The Prime Minister is not taking questions from the media during his visit.

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by Andrew Pierce

If Angela Rayner is to be believed, she waited a surprisingly long time to tell the world about her strikingly convenient letter from HMRC confirming she had been ‘cleared’ of impropriety over her failure to pay tens of thousands of pounds in stamp duty on her luxury flat in Hove, East Sussex.

The letter, she has suggested, arrived on Tuesday – helpfully clearing the dark clouds of the tax investigation that had been hanging over her since September last year.

Tuesday, of course, was the day rebellious ministers were resigning and dozens of MPs were calling on Sir Keir Starmer to go.

You might imagine that Ms Rayner, 46, would have immediately wanted to release this revelation to the media, given her well-publicised ambition to become prime minister herself.

Read the full column by Andrew Pierce here:

A ministerial aide to former health secretary has today resigned from her role.

Rosie Wrighting, who served as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Department for Health, has followed her former boss out of the Government and backed his decision to quit yesterday.

Ms Wrighting wrote on X: ‘He never shies away from the right principled decision, even in difficult times’.

Turning to her own resignation, Ms Wrigthing said Labour ‘must show that we can be better than this, that politics can change things for the good and offer people hope’.

Allies of Wes Streeting insist the former health secretary will stand in a future Labour leadership contest to replace Sir Keir Starmer.

In his resignation letter, Mr Streeting said he had lost the confidence of the Prime Minister with his move to quit plunging Sir Keir’s premiership into chaos.

One of his supporters told HuffPost UK: ‘He has the numbers and will be a candidate when there’s a contest’.

Following his resignation, Mr Streeting called for a broad leadership contest in a move widely seen as welcoming Andy Burnham to take part.

Allies of Sir Keir suggested Mr Streeting did not have the numbers needed to trigger a formal leadership challenge.

Former health secretary Wes Streeting has insisted Andy Burnham gives Labour the ‘best chance’ of beating Reform in the Makerfield by-election.

Mr Streeting, who quit the Government yesterday over Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership, says Mr Burnham is one the ‘best players on the pitch’.

In a post on X, he wrote:

We need our best players on the pitch. There is no doubt that Andy Burnham is one of them. The Makerfield by-election will be tough.

Votes will need to be earned. Andy is the best chance of winning and that should override factional advantage or propping up one person.

Reform today vowed to throw everything they have at stopping Andy Burnham from becoming an MP.

Deputy leader Richard Tice said the party wanted to ‘make Burnham history’ in the Makerfield by-election triggered to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to abandon the north and try to become prime minister.

Predictions for the 2029 election, based on current polling, make it a safe Reform win.

Speaking to GB News today Mr Tice said ‘the north had already spoken’ about its feelings for Labour, adding:

I am absolutely sure we will select someone who has the best chance and who will ultimately defeat Andy Burnham. Our simple campaign is vote Reform and make Burnham history.

Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell has said she has it on ‘good authority’ there will be ‘absolutely no attempt’ to stop Andy Burnham from the upcoming Makerfield by-election

‘We will have him as the candidate I am sure,’ she told a Fire Brigades Union conference in Coventry.

Ms Powell tells the conference she will take the political lead in Makerfield for election and has called on the unions for support after they predicted Sir Keir Starmer will not lead Labour at the next election.

On last week’s local election results, Ms Powell says there is ‘no sugercoating’ the outcome which she says ‘has been coming for a few years’.

‘We might have lost more seats to Reform, but we’ve actually lost a lot more voters to parties to our left,’ she adds.

Former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips has said Andy Burnham must be ‘careful of looking entitled’ as he joins the race to replace Sir Keir Starmer

In her first remarks since she resigned on Tuesday, Ms Phillips also suggested the Manchester mayor may be ‘playing a sort of Game of Thrones’ which could put off voters.

Speaking to Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, she said:

Look, I have a huge amount of fondness for Andy Burnham. But I would also say like just be really, really careful of looking entitled.

It looks like, you know, there’s a sort of level of entitlement that ‘I feel like I’ll just have X, Y and Z seat’. I don’t know.

Labour would be ‘consumed’ by chaos if a leadership contest to replace Sir Keir Starmer were triggered, one of his key Cabinet allies has warned.

Speaking earlier this morning, Housing Secretary Steve Reed warned his colleagues against triggering a leadership contest against Sir Keir, and claimed the party would follow the Conservatives in suffering further woes at the ballot box if one took place.

He told Sky News:

You don’t have to imagine what would happen, because we just have to look back at what the Conservatives did.

Labour did ‘badly’ in last week’s local polls in England, and in devolved elections in Wales and Scotland, Mr Reed conceded, but added:

The Conservatives went further back from that dreadful general election result. Do we really want that to be our future? We’re in power. We were sent here by the British public to deliver change. We promised the fastest growing economy in the G7, this first quarter this year. We’ve done it.

We promised to cut NHS waiting lists. Yesterday we saw the biggest monthly fall for 18 years. Why would we throw that away to engage in the chaos that consumed the Conservatives?