Starmer tests his Cabinet's loyalty after Burnham victory

Keir Starmer's refusal to cede power after Andy Burnham's election to parliament leaves the Labour Party in a stand-off and the Cabinet considering if they should tell the prime minister his time is up.

A clear majority of the Cabinet think it is now inevitable Burnham will take over from Starmer as premier, according to people familiar with the thinking of more than 15 Cabinet ministers, who spoke to Bloomberg on condition of anonymity on Friday.

However, at the moment most remain unwilling to force the matter and are not ready to tell Starmer to set out a timetable for his departure, they said. The key question is how many shift over the coming days toward telling him they think he should go, they added.

The prime minister on Friday vowed to fight any leadership contest triggered by Burnham, insisting: "If there is one, I'll stand" and "I'm not going to walk away." He told a call with Labour staffers: "Let's pull together as a party and a movement. The one thing we've got to avoid doing is plunging our party and our country into chaos by turning on each other."

Burnham, who won a parliamentary by-election in the early hours of Friday morning and is now able to launch a leadership challenge, does not intend to do so immediately, people familiar with his plans said. The scale of Burnham's victory over Nigel Farage's Reform U.K. in the Makerfield constituency was proof he was best placed to lead Labour against the populist right, they said, arguing the longer Starmer tries to resist the more damaging his exit will be.

The mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, Burnham will stand down from that position and take his seat in Westminster on Monday but doesn't have any further interventions planned, they said, suggesting they want to let pressure on Starmer build. He wants to speak to Starmer in the coming days, but not over the weekend, they said.

Government officials placed Cabinet ministers in four broad groupings. The first are those who are ultra-loyal to Starmer and want him to fight on, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Attorney General Richard Hermer and Housing Secretary Steve Reed, the people said.

Then there are the more pragmatic loyalists, which form the majority of the Cabinet, the people said. This group remains loyal but would not want Starmer to hurt his reputation by fighting on when it is impossible for him to continue. They do not yet think he is in that position. It is likely to include Justice Secretary David Lammy, Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, Business Secretary Peter Kyle, Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander and Chief Whip Jonathan Reynolds, they said.

A third group consists of those more seriously considering telling Starmer he should consider agreeing a handover to Burnham. That was likely to include Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, the people said. These ministers may feel they are more likely to secure ministerial roles in a Burnham administration, they added.

The fourth group is the actively pro-Burnham camp in the Cabinet, made up of Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, the people said.

Newer members of the Cabinet, such as recently appointed Defense Secretary Dan Jarvis and Health Secretary James Murray, are unlikely to want to get involved in the discussions, the people said.

Some Starmer loyalists told Bloomberg they thought the PM should fight Burnham in a leadership contest in order to ensure his policies and ideas were tested. Calls by Burnham's allies for an orderly handover later in the summer are evidence he is not yet ready for the job and does not have a plan, one Starmer ally said. If he wants to be prime minister he should formally challenge Starmer, another said.

Another said it had not yet reached the point where Starmer's loyalists have to tell him to go. That could still happen, but we're not there yet, they said.

The options facing Starmer "are now few and far between," his former political director Luke Sullivan told Times Radio. "This result, the scale of it, has changed all possible paths for survival for the prime minister."

-With assistance from Lucy White.

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This story was originally published June 19, 2026 at 9:14 AM.