Andy Burnham’s allies have been offering peerages to MPs willing to stand aside so he can return to Westminster, The i Paper has been told.
Multiple sources claim the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s allies have been making moves to position him for any leadership challenge which may come after the local elections.
The results are likely to pile further pressure on Sir Keir Starmer, who has long known that these elections could be make or break for his premiership.
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Bonnie Tyler in induced coma after emergency surgery
The singer has been placed into
a coma after she was rushed to hospital for urgent intestinal surgery, with well wishes
pouring in from around the
world.
Caption: MALMO, SWEDEN – MAY 17: Bonnie Tyler of the United Kingdom performs during a dress rehearsal ahead of the finals of the Eurovision Song Contest 2013 at Malmo Arena on May 17, 2013 in Malmo, Sweden. (Photo by Ragnar Singsaas/Getty Images)
Photographer: Ragnar Singsaas
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2013 Getty Images
What we know
Coma ‘to aid her recovery’
Caption: (FILES) British singer Gaynor Sullivan aka Bonnie Tyler poses with her medal after being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) during an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle on February 1, 2023. Husky-voiced Welsh singer Bonnie Tyler was “recuperating” on May 7, 2026 after emergency intestinal surgery in Portugal. (Photo by Andrew Matthews / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
Photographer: ANDREW MATTHEWS
Provider: POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Source: AFP
The 74-year-old Welsh sensation was admitted to hospital near her home in Faro, Portugal, on Wednesday. An update last night asked for privacy while she is treated.
Interview
7 min read
From the valleys to Eurovision
Tyler, born Gaynor Hopkins, in Neath, South Wales, shot to fame with her hit Total Eclipse of the Heart in 1983. It earned her a Grammy nomination and spent four weeks at number one.
She represented the UK at the Eurovision song contest in 2013, finishing 19th out of 26, and was awarded an MBE in 2023 for services to music.
MUSIC
3 min read
MUSIC
3 min read
CONSUMER
Key parking fine rules clarified by appeals body
Caption: WHITBY, ENGLAND – MAY 02: A parking fine is attached to a goth car windscreen as it parked during Whitby Goth Weekend on May 02, 2026 in Whitby, England. The Whitby Goth Weekend is a world-renowned bi-annual festival (April and October) celebrating goth music, culture, and fashion. Founded in 1994, it honors Whitby’s deep links to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The event features live music and attracts visitors in elaborate costumes, including Steampunk, Victoriana, and Cybergoth styles. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)
Photographer: Ian Forsyth
Provider: Getty Images
Source: Getty Images Europe
Copyright: 2026 Getty Images
As record numbers of drivers successfully appeal parking fines, the industry group granting the reprieves has issued guidance on how to avoid getting one in the first place.
Here are their top tips.
Fines last year in figures
Of appeals submitted to Parking on Private Land Appeals (Popla) last year…
50.5%
resulted in cancellation of the fine.
107,202
appeals were submitted, the first time the figure has gone over 100,000.
39,522 appeals were uncontested by the operator, while 14,578 were contested but Popla ruled in favour of the driver.
What are the rules?
It’s worth appealing if you think you have paid
Not paying in time
Fines not to be given if the driver has paid by the time they leave the car park.
Keying errors
Fines to be reduced to £20 for obvious mistakes typing in number plates.
Airport drop-offs
Fines only to be issued if driver hasn’t paid within 24 hours of leaving.
Exclusive
2 min read
Confusion is ‘clearly profitable’, says expert
It’s mind-blowing how many people just pay it without question because they think it’s a ‘fine’ – that’s part of the business model. That it explains why parking charge notices (invoices issued by parking firms) look similar to penalty charge notices.
SCOTT DIXON, CONSUMER DISPUTES EXPERT
Ministers in talks with more local authorities to expand national parking app (Photo: Getty)
Indonesia volcano eruption kills three as 10 hikers missing
An eruption of Mount Dukono
in the eastern island of
Halmahera has killed at least
two foreigners and a local who were walking in the area.
Several still missing are
believed to have been climbing.
Caption: HALMAHERA, INDONESIA – MAY 08: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘INDONESIAN SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS) / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Joint search and rescue (SAR) teams prepare to evacuate victims affected by the eruption of Mount Dukono in North Halmahera, Maluku Province, Indonesia, on May 08, 2026. At least three Singaporeans have been killed, while 17 others are still being searched for. (Photo by Basarnas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
Rescue efforts continue
Seven climbers have descended the volcano safely, and five were injured in the eruption, which shot an ash cloud six miles into the air, according to Indonesia’s national disaster management agency.
Caption: HALMAHERA, INDONESIA – MAY 08: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘INDONESIAN SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS) / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Joint search and rescue (SAR) teams prepare to evacuate victims affected by the eruption of Mount Dukono in North Halmahera, Maluku Province, Indonesia, on May 08, 2026. At least three Singaporeans have been killed, while 17 others are still being searched for. (Photo by Basarnas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
Caption: Smoke after the eruption of Mount Dukono in North Halmahera Regency, North Maluku, Indonesia, May 8, 2026, in this picture obtained from social media. Jhon Frengki Manipa/via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. Verification Lines: – Buildings, flagpole, floor and basketball stand matched file and satellite images. – Date verified by original file metadata.
Photographer: Jhon Frengki Manipa
Provider: Jhon Frengki Manipa via REUTERS
Source: UGC
Those still missing are believed to be in an area which was declared to be off-limits to visitors last month, after monitoring showed an uptick in activity from Mount Dukono. Rescue efforts are taking place mostly on foot as the rough terrain prohibits vehicle access to parts of the slope.
Foreigners ignored warnings, says police chief
Erlichson Pasaribu said that foreigners had ignored signs and social media posts warning of danger in the area.
“Local residents understand and don’t want to climb,” he said. “Many [hikers] are foreign tourists who wish to create content.”
Caption: HALMAHERA, INDONESIA – MAY 08: (—-EDITORIAL USE ONLY – MANDATORY CREDIT – ‘INDONESIAN SEARCH AND RESCUE AGENCY (BASARNAS) / HANDOUT’ – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS—-) Joint search and rescue (SAR) teams prepare to evacuate victims affected by the eruption of Mount Dukono in North Halmahera, Maluku Province, Indonesia, on May 08, 2026. At least three Singaporeans have been killed, while 17 others are still being searched for. (Photo by Basarnas/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Photographer: Anadolu
Provider: Anadolu via Getty Images
Source: Anadolu
LIFESTYLE
5 min read
In January, Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC) blocked Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election in an attempt to protect a weakened Starmer from a leadership challenge from the so-called “King of the North”.
But that has not stopped fevered speculation about him making a fresh bid, with multiple sources telling The i Paper that his allies are offering peerages to MPs willing to stand aside and allow him a route back to Westminster.
There is no suggestion that any MP has accepted an offer to vacate their seat, but it does demonstrate the lengths the competing factions in Westminster are going to in support of their favoured candidates.
Sources close to Burnham have insisted that he had neither offered nor suggested such a reward to any MP offering to stand aside for him, nor is he in a position to do so.
While true that Burnham himself cannot currently hand out peerages, if he eventually became prime minister, he would have this power as part of the established Westminster honours system.
Speculation has been building that he will soon mount a new bid to enter Westminster and has identified a new seat. One ally confidently predicted that he would not be blocked again by the NEC and will be prime minister by September. This would require the writ being moved for a by-election as soon as Parliament returns on Wednesday for the King’s Speech. However, such claims have been dismissed by other MPs as “complete bollocks” and “wishful thinking”.
MPs thought to be under pressure to give up their seats include Peter Dowd, the MP for Bootle on Merseyside, Charlotte Nichols, the Warrington North MP, and Marie Rimmer, the MP for St Helens South – although all deny being approached.
Sources close to Burnham deny any of these seats were ever in contention. Another seat being closely watched is Rusholme in Manchester, currently held by Afzal Khan, one of Burnham’s closest political allies and former lord mayor of the city.
‘Dire’ election results in North West ‘don’t help Burnham’
A Starmer-supporting MP said Labour losses to Reform UK in local elections in the North West show why Burnham in his current left-leaning guise can’t be leader. “The detail of results doesn’t really help him,” they said. “He’s supposed to be so popular in Manchester, but the results from there are pretty dire, so where is this seat that he is going to fight? And the likelihood that we lose the mayoral by-election he might cause seems very, very high. The whole thing doesn’t really vindicate his stance.”
The MP said Burnham might have a poll bounce “in the immediate aftermath” if he were to become leader but that “a week into being prime minister he’d be confronted with the same set of decisions that Keir has got to make, and those are not decisions that are going to make you wildly popular in the short term”.
But Compass, a think-tank supportive of Burnham, rejected the analysis that Reform gains mean Labour should not tack left.
The think-tank, which backs the Mainstream Labour group closely associated with Burnham, said the party’s losses on Friday morning were mirrored by gains of the Green Party of England and Wales, and that this was eating into their vote, handing seats to Zack Polanski’s party.
It claimed there is a “progressive majority” in the UK for the party that can unite voters on the centre left, highlighting comments from elections expert Professor Sir John Curtice on Friday saying: “It should be remembered that Labour may often lose seats to Reform because it is losing votes to the Greens, while the Conservatives are losing votes to Reform. The net effect can be that Labour end up losing a seat to Reform [as the party comes through the middle].”
Labour is forecast to lose up to 2,000 council seats across England, alongside difficult results in the Scottish and Welsh elections.
Nigel Farage’s Reform is on track to be the biggest winner, while Polanski’s Greens are also on course to make significant gains.