‘It’s Andy or bust’: MPs could keep Starmer in place to give Burnham time to return

A picture


If Keir Starmer is looking for a saviour to keep him in No 10 after the May elections and the scandal of the Mandelson saga, there is an unlikely figure in the north-west who might help him – temporarily.It has been the week where the prime minister seemed at his most isolated.But Labour MPs told the Guardian they were urging colleagues not to depose Starmer next month, and were instead preparing to demand that Andy Burnham return to parliament in order to succeed him before the next general election.Burnham had a busy day on Thursday, in the week that Starmer was at war with Whitehall over the failed vetting of Peter Mandelson.The mayor of Greater Manchester was campaigning in the local elections in five London boroughs – Haringey, Islington, Southwark, Lewisham and Bromley.

Having once been viewed suspiciously by some in the 2024 intake as aloof and dismissive of those who had won seats in the south, Burnham has been making efforts to build bridges.Now many Labour MPs say they are willing to back Starmer in the event of a challenge to his leadership to give time for Burnham to return, having been previously blocked from standing at the Gorton and Denton byelection.Starmer is likely to be able to count on much of the party’s left bloc to support him, in order to stall the process of replacing him.But support for Burnham has been growing again among the party’s right.“It’s Andy or bust,” one senior centrist MP said.

“Nothing else works,Nobody else can win,Anything before he has a path is too soon,”Burnham has let it be known to MPs he would still seek to return to parliament at the earliest opportunity and has been speaking to more of the 2024 intake to build alliances, allies said,He was spotted over the weekend meeting the former deputy leadership candidate Angela Rayner, herself a likely potential leadership candidate.

A number of ministers also said they were keen to dissuade angry MPs from moving against Starmer too quickly in order to give Burnham time.“There are various plans circulating, none of them good,” one MP said.One source said backbenchers were preparing to demand that Starmer allow Burnham to return to parliament as a price for their support in any summer leadership race, which might be triggered by a direct challenge.“This has changed in the last few months – MPs have coalesced around Burnham in a way they hadn’t before.They also don’t want to do what the Tories did with Boris and have a disorderly transition to another insider.

They are willing to drag this out until Burnham gets back,”Another added: “It has to be Andy – no other potential leader will win an election,But that has created a stasis where no one wants to move,”A third said: “The focus groups I have seen around Andy are like actual gold dust,People say things like ‘he cares about people like us’.

Do you know how rare it is to see that about a politician? We cannot act in anger and just make things worse for ourselves.”Starmer’s most outspoken critics on the left of the party are also prepared to act to keep the prime minister in place until a return can be sought for Burnham.“If there is a coup on 8 May that would be catastrophic,” one leftwing MP said.“We won’t back it, because we need to wait for Andy.”Some, however, worry that dragging things out could damage the party in the long run.

“Never underestimate the power of the rules-based order in the Labour party to ensure we always move too late,” said one MP.Another said: “I am not sure the brand damage would be recoverable from by 2028 in many of the places we need to win.”Starmer’s allies have been emphasising again to MPs how the public would react to seeing the party launch into a leadership contest in the middle of a potential economic crisis.One senior backbencher said that a move against Starmer in the context of the Iran war would be political suicide.“All those 2024 intake MPs who think appointing a caretaker PM is a brilliant idea should consider how the country will take it.

The country and the Tories will demand a general election immediately, as they didn’t elect anyone but Starmer to be PM.“This time there won’t be a national Labour swing to help them and they are taking a huge risk by trying to get rid of a democratically elected PM.Politics is about weathering the good and the bad.Deposing a PM at a time of national crisis is bluntly lunatic behaviour.”Referring to the flaws in various potential rivals, they added: “There’s no point crying about Andy Burnham – he’s literally not eligible.

Wes [Streeting] is compromised.Angela [Rayner] has HMRC issues.Ed [Miliband] lost us 2015.Everyone hates Shabana [Mahmood].Who is going to stand?”Several others said that they expected Starmer to reject any demands from his critics after next month’s elections.

“He is prepared to do anything to stay in post,” one minister said.“Sack Wes, sack Ed, whatever it takes.This is not a man who people can come to with a list of demands and expect him to just acquiesce.What power do they actually have?”
cultureSee all
A picture

Jimmy Kimmel on Trump’s Iran negotiations: ‘His word is as good as the gold commode he sits on’

Late-night hosts reacted to Donald Trump’s indefinite extension of the Iran ceasefire as his cabinet fumbles negotiations over the unpopular war.“The White House is not a fun place to be right now,” said Jimmy Kimmel on Tuesday evening. “The strait of Hormuz is like a Toys ‘R’ Us - nobody has any idea if it’s still open or not.”A Trump-imposed ceasefire between the US and Iran was scheduled to end on Wednesday night, and on Monday, Trump said it was “highly unlikely” he would extend it. “He said if a deal wasn’t reached, Iran was going to be bombed like Kash Patel at the Poodle Room in Vegas,” Kimmel quipped, referring to a bombshell report from the Atlantic on the FBI director’s alleged excessive drinking and unexplained absences

A picture

Jon Stewart on Trump’s strategy in Iran: ‘Malignant narcissism and impulsivity’

Late-night hosts examined Donald Trump’s incoherent strategy on Iran and a new bombshell report on the FBI director Kash Patel’s alleged excessive drinking.Jon Stewart opened the latest Daily Show with a concession: Donald Trump “did a solid” by signing a bill that fast-tracked research on novel psychedelic drug treatment for mental health conditions, especially veterans suffering from PTSD.Stewart cut to a clip of the president in the Oval Office babbling about the psychoactive drug ibogaine, which showed that users “experienced an 80% to 90% reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety within one month”. Trump then joked: “Can I have some, please? I’ll take it. I’ll take it, whatever it takes

A picture

The Hours won awards for Nicole Kidman’s fake nose – and hearts as a queer classic

Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer prize-winning book The Hours – inspired by Virginia Woolf’s seminal 1925 novel, Mrs Dalloway – imagines one day in the lives of three women separated across time periods. The triptych follows Woolf in the throes of writing Mrs Dalloway; Laura Brown, a depressed housewife who is reading Woolf’s novel in postwar America; and Clarissa Vaughan, a New Yorker who acts as a contemporary embodiment of Woolf’s titular character.Cunningham’s 1998 text, though widely acclaimed, was initially deemed unadaptable due to its nonlinear structure and stream-of-consciousness approach that paid homage to Woolf’s pioneering style. However, since its publication, The Hours (which takes its name from Mrs Dalloway’s working title), has been reinterpreted as an opera and, most notably, a 2002 film directed by Stephen Daldry.As the title suggests, the film explores the ways in which the routine of a single day can be at once beautiful in its ordinariness or seismic in its oppressive mundanity

A picture

Zoologist, author and presenter Desmond Morris dies aged 98

The zoologist Desmond Morris, perhaps best known for his book The Naked Ape and his work on the ITV programme Zoo Time, has died aged 98.Morris’s son Jason paid tribute to him after his death on Sunday, praising his many professional achievements as well as his role as a father and grandfather.“His was a lifetime of exploration, curiosity and creativity,” Jason said. “A zoologist, manwatcher, author and artist, he was still writing and painting right up until his death. He was a great man and an even better father and grandfather

A picture

V&A East Storehouse and Norwich Castle among finalists for museum of the year

The V&A East Storehouse, the National Gallery and an accessible castle in Norwich are among the contenders for this year’s Art Fund museum of the year award, the most prestigious UK prize in the sector.The annual prize offers the winner £120,000, with £20,000 going to each of the other finalists, who the Art Fund’s director, Jenny Waldman, said had all “innovated in different ways”.This year’s list is dominated by some of the biggest names in the cultural sector that have undergone big refurbishments or invested in significant new outposts, such as the V&A’s East Storehouse, which will be seen by many as a frontrunner.Based in the Olympic Park in Stratford, east London, the space aims to reimagine what a storeroom can be, with partitions removed so visitors can see “and breathe the same air” as the objects. Waldman said the V&A Storehouse, which opened in spring 2025 at a cost of £65m, had broken the boundaries of what a store could be

A picture

Letter: Sir Neil Cossons obituary

In 1971, Neil Cossons and I were on the staff of Liverpool Museum, and he invited me to accompany him on a visit to Ironbridge Gorge in Shropshire. We admired Blists Hill furnace, the bridge, the surrounding buildings and their setting, and shortly afterwards he became its director.The appeal it had as a monument to the industrial revolution lay in it being a complete entity. Many other site-based museums rely on translocating buildings, often into a replicated local landscape. History occurs in places, and Neil knew that raising one’s gaze from the built artefacts to the landscape enables understanding: preserving the place was crucial