{"id":587645,"date":"2025-11-22T23:16:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T23:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/587645\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T23:16:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T23:16:13","slug":"four-top-labour-figures-could-beat-starmer-in-a-leadership-race-poll-finds-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/587645\/","title":{"rendered":"Four top Labour figures could beat Starmer in a leadership race, poll finds | UK news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting<\/a> would all win a head-to-head leadership contest against Keir Starmer, according to a poll of Labour members.<\/p>\n

Research conducted by Survation for LabourList found that Burnham and Rayner would defeat the prime minister by considerable margins, while Streeting and Miliband would have a slight advantage but within the margin of error.<\/p>\n

The poll also found 54% of members said there should be a new Labour leader in place before the next general election. And 41% of those who backed Starmer for the leadership in 2020 said a new leader should be in place, with 40% wanting him to stay.<\/p>\n

Poll results showing how Labour members would vote in head-to-head contests between Keir Starmer and potential leadership rivals<\/a><\/p>\n

The poll exposed a rift among those who backed either candidate in the recent deputy leadership contest, with 69% of those who supported Lucy Powell calling for a new leader by the next election while 51% of Bridget Phillipson supporters want Starmer to remain as leader.<\/p>\n

Emma Burnell, the editor of LabourList, said: \u201cStarmer\u2019s team have made it clear that he would contest a leadership contest were one to arise. Of course, that was a week ago and we all know that\u2019s a long time in politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt may well be that if it came to it Starmer would decide a contest in which he ran \u2013 and was possibly defeated \u2013 was too damaging to the party in the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n

Should Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, take part in a leadership contest, he would defeat Starmer with the largest margin of any potential challenger \u2013 26 percentage points, the research found. Burnham would need to return to Westminster as a Labour MP in order to be able to challenge for the party leadership.<\/p>\n

Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, would also defeat Starmer by a 19-point margin, polling 52% compared with 33% for the prime minister. Last weekend, allies of Rayner said she would seek to renew her public profile in the coming months and would be likely to run<\/a> in a future leadership contest.<\/p>\n

Streeting, the health secretary, would edge out Starmer by 33% to 31% but the result is within the margin of error and is effectively a dead heat.<\/p>\n

Both candidates would also have to win over the 36% of members who said they would be unsure who to back in such a contest. Earlier this month, Streeting denied leading a plot<\/a> to overthrow the prime minister and called for those briefing against him to be sacked. <\/p>\n

Miliband, Labour leader from 2010 until his resignation in 2015, would lead Starmer by four points should a leadership contest take place, the poll found.<\/p>\n

Burnell added: \u201cThe two leading contenders to Starmer both face significant challenges. Rayner because it may be that not enough time has passed since she, very unfortunately, had to step down.<\/p>\n

\u201cBurnham because he faces several hurdles to being able to run. If things move quickly, he may not be able to return to parliament in time to be a candidate. This might give Starmer and his team hope. If there is no obvious candidate that can beat him, he will feel much more secure in place.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband, Angela Rayner and Wes Streeting would all win a head-to-head leadership contest against Keir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587646,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,12,14],"class_list":{"0":"post-587645","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=587645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587645\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}