{"id":483449,"date":"2026-05-14T00:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/483449\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T00:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T00:28:18","slug":"streeting-seeks-backing-for-leadership-contest-starmer-to-fight-any-attempt-to-unseat-him-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/483449\/","title":{"rendered":"Streeting seeks backing for leadership contest, Starmer to fight any attempt to unseat him \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Allies of Britain\u2019s health secretary Wes Streeting<\/a> were telephoning Labour Party<\/a> MPs on Wednesday night asking them to back him in an imminent heave against UK<\/a> prime minister Keir Starmer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Streeting is said to be on the verge of leaving his government post, possibly on Thursday, to challenge Starmer, who says he will fight any attempt to unseat him<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A challenger needs a minimum of 81 MPs \u2013 roughly one fifth of Labour\u2019s parliamentary party \u2013 to pledge their formal backing to trigger a leadership contest under party rules. Starmer is automatically entitled to enter the contest to defend his position.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, backers of another would-be challenger to Starmer, the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham<\/a>, were insisting he still had time to enter the race.<\/p>\n

\"UKUK prime minister Keir Starmer (centre) during the debate on the king’s speech in the House of Commons in London on Wednesday. Photograph: House of Commons\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Only sitting MPs are entitled to run for the Labour Party leadership, meaning Burnham would have to find an MP willing to stand aside.<\/p>\n

He would then have to win the ensuing byelection.<\/p>\n

One Burnham ally told The Irish Times that he still had \u201cloads of time\u201d to find a winnable seat, while others in Westminster were far more sceptical.<\/p>\n

In recent days, several Labour MPs in seats in the northwest of England that were linked with Burnham said they would not give up their seat to let him run.<\/p>\n

\"GreaterGreater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham. Photograph: Ryan Jenkinson\/Getty <\/p>\n

Marie Rimmer, the MP for St Helen\u2019s South and Whiston in Merseyside, said she would not stand aside for the Manchester mayor.<\/p>\n

Charlotte Nichols, the MP for Warrington North, said rumours she had agreed to make way for Burnham were \u201cb*ll*cks\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how many different ways I can say this but I\u2019m not stepping aside for Andy Burnham,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s both very tedious for me and very demoralising for my staff to keep seeing it reported that I might be about to go, when there\u2019s never even been so much as a conversation with Andy about doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Labour sources said they believed another Labour MP whose seat was heavily-linked with Burnham, Navendu Mishra in Stockport, would not stand aside either. Another seat that was being linked with Burnham was that of Afzal Khan\u2019s in the constituency Manchester Rusholme.<\/p>\n

Even if Burnham manages to find a winnable seat \u2013 Reform UK could be expected to mount a heavy challenge to Labour in any byelection in Burnham\u2019s northwest England purloin \u2013 the party\u2019s national executive committee (NEC) would be in control of the timetable for a leadership contest.<\/p>\n

Burnham would need the NEC\u2019s officers committee, which includes several allies of Starmer and the prime minister himself, to effectively delay a contest to give him time to win a byelection and return to parliament.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Labour leadership phoney war set to end as real battle beginsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

MPs loyal to the prime minister, meanwhile, believe Streeting, a standard bearer of the soft right of the Labour Party, could struggle to get the number of names required to trigger a contest, although his backers say the opposite.<\/p>\n

Al Carns, a former royal marine who is the UK\u2019s minister for the armed forces, is also said to be mulling entering a contest. He wrote an article in the New Statesman on Wednesday effectively laying out a leadership pitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not need more slogans, strategies press releases or commissions. We need action,\u201d said Carns.<\/p>\n

Starmer, who is under pressure after Labour\u2019s disastrous election showing last week, has warned a leadership contest now would plunge Britain into \u201cchaos\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, close to 100 of his own MPs have already called on him to go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Allies of Britain\u2019s health secretary Wes Streeting were telephoning Labour Party MPs on Wednesday night asking them to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[37363,9,10,7638,18,13,14,6,19,17,5446,20568,11,12,15,16,5,7,8,20565,393,100607],"class_list":{"0":"post-483449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-andy-burnham","9":"tag-breaking-news","10":"tag-breakingnews","11":"tag-downing-street","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-keir-starmer","19":"tag-labour-party-uk","20":"tag-latest-news","21":"tag-latestnews","22":"tag-main-news","23":"tag-mainnews","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topstories","27":"tag-uk-politics","28":"tag-united-kingdom","29":"tag-wes-streeting"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116570102735348361","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}