Starmer and his potential successor favour a delay over the summer to allow orderly handover Daily Telegraph 21/06/26 Andy Burnham is expected to become prime minister by September after he topples Sir Keir Starmer this week. Allies of Sir Keir expect him to resign as soon as Monday morning after a weekend holed up at Chequers with his family. However, the Prime Minister and Mr Burnham are said to favour a delay over the summer to allow an orderly handover of the keys to No 10. Mr Burnham will arrive in Westminster on Monday to be sworn in as Makerfield’s new MP and will hold meetings with his team about his next steps . Allies told The Telegraph that the former Mayor of Manchester wants a transition of at least a month, and even until early September, to prepare policies and build a team for running the country. It could allow Sir Keir to remain in place for crucial meetings with Nato and the EU next month. Potential legacies in European defence co-operation and economic align...
Allies of Sir Keir Starmer believe he is preparing to step down after facing an evaporation of support over the weekend. Daily Telegraph 20/06/26 link A senior government figure told The Telegraph the embattled Prime Minister was realising that the “game is up” and his thoughts were turning to how he could “shore up his legacy”. They said there had been “quite a bit of movement” among Cabinet ministers since Andy Burnham’s Makerfield by-election victory, leading Sir Keir to reconsider his previous commitment to soldiering on. One Labour MP, who is usually considered to be a loyalist to the Prime Minister, said he believed Sir Keir would announce his departure date as soon as Monday given that his support among MPs was now down to only a handful of “friends and family”. “There’s no one left. Literally people whose relatives work in No 10 or people who are long term personal friends of Keir’s are pretty much the only ones left,” they said, adding that trying to stand in the way of Mr ...