Starmer now faces pressure to resign from two Labour frontspublished at 19:40 BST
Iain Watson
Political correspondent
The rumours of resignations came this afternoon. I was told they wouldn’t be from the Burnham camp.
Now that they have begun, Keir Starmer faces pressure on two fronts.
Already pressed for a timetable for his resignation from left and centre-left supporters of Andy Burnham, he now has calls for him to go from the right of the party – and so far three resignations of ministerial aides.
These are from people close to the health secretary Wes Streeting (and in some cases home secretary Shabana Mahmood.) But not all his detractors agree on the timetable for him to go.
The Burnham backers want enough time for their pick to find a seat, fight a by-election and return to Westminster.
Some close to Streeting want a swift timetable that would exclude Burnham.
There had been disagreement amongst MPs in the centre-right Labour First grouping between those who wanted a Streeting challenge and those who wanted the PM to stay in place.
Keir Starmer has said he will fight any challenge and I’m told he has seen polling that suggests he might win a contest in which not just MPs, but the wider membership, would vote – so long as Burnham isn’t on the ballot.
If the challengers are Streeting and perhaps Angela Rayner, he may choose to fight on.
But I’m told the pressure is on him tonight to stand aside.
So far only junior aides have gone but at least one of the camps has told me it might be necessary at some point to have ministerial resignations to concentrate his mind.
There are also well-sourced suggestions that a further 50 MPs might call for his departure.
If he does reach the conclusion that his premiership is unsustainable, the timescale for the subsequent leadership contest could determine the winner.
