Keir Starmer allies will not block Andy Burnham, reports say

Main PointsA sitting Labour MP resigned from his seat, paving the way for Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to potentially return to Westminster and mount a challenge to prime minister Keir Starmer’s Labour leadershipWes Streeting, another likely contender for challenging Starmer, resigned as UK health secretary, saying he has “lost confidence” in the prime minister as leader of their partyFormer deputy leader Angela Rayner has suggested she could enter any leadership contest. She has been cleared by tax authorities of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairsStarmer’s position as prime minister has become increasingly tenuous since Labour’s hammering in elections across Britain last weekKey ReadsProfile: Is Wes Streeting a reformer or performer?Kathy Sheridan: Nigel Farage’s success is the Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party meme come to lifeFinn McRedmond: Starmer is bland, stable, boring – he should have gone a long waySarah Burns - 19 minutes agoUncertainty over Starmer’s future putting investment and country’s reputation at risk, say big companies Bosses of some of Britain’s biggest companies have voiced dismay at the turmoil in Westminster, warning that uncertainty over Keir Starmer’s future is putting at risk investment decisions and the country’s reputation. Chief executives have told the Financial Times that calls for the prime minister to quit, Wes Streeting’s resignation and Andy Burnham’s move to return to parliament were a far cry from the stability and certainty promised by the ruling party in the lead-up to the 2024 general election.One FTSE 100 chief executive said the government had over the past week “myopically focused on its own infighting and scandals, rather than focusing on the long-awaited action it should be delivering”.Another chief executive said days of jeopardy for Starmer since Labour suffered dire losses in local and devolved elections amounted to a “lost week in terms of any progress on objectives”, while former J Sainsbury boss Justin King accused ministers of failing to learn “the lessons of the last years of the Conservative administration”.Britain's prime minister Keir Starmer and Britain's main opposition Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AFP via Getty Images Sarah Burns - 38 minutes agoLabour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell will say Andy Burnham, Wes Streeting and Angela Rayner should all be seen as “key players” in the party in a speech on Friday.Powell will also repeat her support for Burnham’s efforts to return to parliament after Josh Simons, the MP for Makerfield, said he would stand aside to let him run for the seat in a byelection.She will say she is confident Burnham will have the support of the “vast majority of the party and movement” to make a bid to come back to Westminster.Powell was the only member of Labour’s ruling body to vote in favour of allowing Burnham to stand in a by-election in Gorton and Denton earlier this year, but he was blocked from doing so and the Greens took the seat.Starmer will not seek to block Burnham from standing this time around, it is understood, but it is not yet guaranteed that he will be chosen as the candidate.Ms Powell is expected to tell the Fire Brigades’ Union conference: “The election results last week were deeply painful and difficult for our party, and the aftermath has been unedifying for us all too.“We don’t do hostile takeovers in Labour for a reason. Keir is the leader, and I warned against bloody internal battles reflecting badly.”But she will also warn that it is a “mistake” to think Labour does not have “further to fall” after dire election results for the party in local polls last week. Sarah Burns - 58 minutes agoGood morning, and welcome to another day of political turmoil in Westminster. As we head into the weekend, moves are well advanced to challenge the leadership of prime minister Keir Starmer. Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, confirmed on Thursday that he would ask Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC) to allow him stand in a forthcoming byelection – a necessity in running for the top spot. And, according to reports in the Guardian, allies of Starmer have confirmed that he would not seek to block him doing so. It means, of course, that Burnham now has a potential route back to parliament and a chance to become Labour’s next leader. It all comes after an MP said he would trigger a byelection by standing down from his seat. That move has ended days of speculation about whether Burnham could secure a possible path back into Westminster, and underlined the increasingly precarious nature of Keir Starmer’s premiership. Meanwhile, Wes Streeting has stood down as health secretary after seemingly failing to get the numbers to launch a challenge against the prime minister. Angela Rayner, the former deputy prime minister, has settled some tricky tax affairs, paving the way for her own return to frontline politics. Further developments on Friday should prove interesting.