New York Post<\/a> reported. As only a sitting MP can be party leader this was a crucial step in Mr Burnham being able challenge Mr Starmer. <\/p>\nMr Burnham, who has made two previous runs at heading the Labour Party, is said to have the support of over half the Labour MPs to mount a leadership challenge to Mr Starmer, the outlet reported. <\/p>\n
The two are set to meet in the coming days.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeir has realised the game is up and it\u2019s got to be a graceful exit,\u201d a senior Labour figure told Reuters The Observer. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhat he rightly wants to avoid is humiliation, but the worst humiliation for Keir personally would be if he stands in a leadership election and is heavily beaten.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even if Mr Starmer drops out of a leadership contest it\u2019s likely Mr Burnham will still have to fight other contenders including former health secretary Wes Streeting.<\/p>\n
Mr Burnham was once associated with the centrist pro-business faction of the Labour Party, but now presents himself as a left-wing populist and is known for his man on the street social media videos. <\/p>\n
He received 55 per cent of the vote in the Makerfield electorate, easily defeating Labour\u2019s main rival, the Reform Party, headed by Brexiteer Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n
How it went downhill for Starmer<\/p>\n
Mr Starmer\u2019s woes are all the more notable because Labour won a landslide election victory less than two years ago turfing out the Conservative Party of Rishi Sunak. <\/p>\n
UK elections only needs to happen every five years, so Mr Starmer could have remained in the top office for some time. <\/p>\n
However, Mr Starmer has faced dismal approval ratings as Britain deals with economic and immigration issues. There has also been the rise of Reform which wiped the floor with Labour in recent local elections. There is a concern within the party that Labour would lose the next election if Mr Starmer remained at the helm.<\/p>\n
The Prime minister has also been weakened by a serious of policy turnarounds and ministerial resignations including the defence secretary John Healey recently who said pleas by the UK military to get more funding were falling on deaf ears and harming the nation, <\/p>\n
He has frequently clashed with US President Trump \u2013 particularly after he refused to come to the aid of the United States in the war against Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not happy with the UK either \u2026 this is not Winston Churchill that we\u2019re dealing with,\u201d Mr Trump said of Mr Starmer in March after tensions between the two leaders came to a boil.<\/p>\n
Mr Trump was frustrated by Mr Starmer\u2019s refusal to allow US planes to launch from the joint US-UK air base in Diego Garcia and other UK bases in the region.<\/p>\n
He ultimately allowed the US access to Diego Garcia, but not after several tongue-lashings from the commander in chief.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were not involved in the initial strikes against Iran, and we will not join offensive action now. But in the face of Iran\u2019s barrage of missiles and \u2060drones, we will protect our people in the region,\u201d Mr Starmer said in March.<\/p>\n
With The New York Post. <\/p>\n
Read related topics:Donald Trump<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump has weighed into British political drama, declaring Sir Keir Starmer \u201cwill resign\u201d as UK prime minister.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-651098","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\/651098","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=651098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}