{"id":646313,"date":"2026-06-19T00:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646313\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T00:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T00:45:08","slug":"exclusive-andy-burnham-has-the-nominations-to-trigger-a-leadership-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/646313\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Andy Burnham has the nominations to trigger a leadership challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>        <img width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-2280079983.jpg\" class=\"attachment-4x3-large-crop size-4x3-large-crop wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"  \/><br \/>\n                Photo by Anthony Devlin\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap\">Andy Burnham has crossed the threshold of Labour MP nominations required to formally trigger a Labour leadership contest, according to three sources close to the matter, and intends to present the list to Keir Starmer to urge him to step down without a contest. <\/p>\n<p>Burnham has no plans to trigger a contest on Friday or over the weekend, but is ready with a list of supporters he can show to Starmer. \u201cA contest isn\u2019t in anyone\u2019s interest and we\u2019re hoping Keir will come to his senses,\u201d one insider said. <\/p>\n<p>Nominations from 20 per cent of Labour MPs \u2013 81 in this case \u2013 are required to trigger a leadership race under Labour Party rules. Burnham has crossed the threshold following a secretive ring-round operation in recent weeks, involving a select number of MPs and at least one parliamentary private secretary. The operation has been organised in \u201ccells\u201d, with each organising MP responsible for a small number of colleagues, and only a few figures having sight of the whole spreadsheet. This was the same technique used to organise the \u201creasoned amendment\u201d rebellion against the welfare cuts last summer.<\/p>\n<p>The conversations to bring MPs round will continue in the coming hours and days. Some are \u201c80 per cent there\u201d and are likely to be added to the spreadsheet of Burnham backers after the Makerfield result, one insider said. Many more have pledged to support Burnham once a contest is already triggered, they added.<\/p>\n<p>                            <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/2026\/06\/javascript(void);\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/dl6pgk4f88hky.cloudfront.net\/2021\/09\/TNS_master_logo.svg\" class=\"img\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to the New Statesman for \u00a31 a week<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear when Burnham and Starmer might speak in the coming days. A Burnham campaign source said they don\u2019t know when Starmer will want to speak with Burnham, having suggested different timings at different points. The pair have had no direct contact during the campaign. <\/p>\n<p>[Further reading: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newstatesman.com\/politics\/uk-politics\/2026\/06\/what-will-happen-in-a-manchester-mayoral-by-election\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">What will happen in a Manchester mayoral by-election?<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>    Content from our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo by Anthony Devlin\/Getty Images Andy Burnham has crossed the threshold of Labour MP nominations required to formally&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-646313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=646313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}