Andy Burnham is standing!

[Sortis]

This is the first time in ages I've felt excited and hopeful about our politics. Will he be blocked by Starmer's allies?

What plausible hard left candidate is currently in the PLP?

Were Ed Milliband and Jeremy Corbyn plausible? Not that Ed Milliband is Hard Left, but he was further to the Left of his brother and courted the unions. Any of the remaining Corbynite MP's Including Richard Burgeon, Nadia Whittome, Clive Lewis, Rebecca Long-Bailey could be put up against him 'for balance'. History has shown they don't need to be 'plausible' for the CLP to vote for them.

All of them court the unions because the unions pay the bills. The MPs you’ve listed don’t have much of a following and are unlikely to win anything, especially as so many members have left to join the Greens.

I hate the idea of a leadership challenge, but I think it will happen and better now than closer to the next election. There’s no getting around the fact that Starmer has lost the country and the PLP and the government is imploding in any case.

I think the problem with the Labour government is that their backbenchers (many of them new with slim majorities) don't understand what their job is. They are acting as the Official opposition, forcing u turn after u turn out of the government (I also blame the government for many of those issues for not waiting and thinking things through first on many of those issues) but the backbenchers have smelt blood and are now constantly agitiating. They have forced several u turns and are still not satisfied. We have a weak government with a large minority of their own MP's who do not support it. Its impossible to govern like that. Any new leader will have the same problem because they will have the same problems to deal with- a ballooning welfare bill and a sluggish economy.

I agree with this and that it's unhelpful. Not assisted by the fact that the official opposition and the party doing best in the polls (Tories and Reform to be clear) are so poor at their job and so self-interested. So the earnest harder left types in Labour decide this is their time. It isn't. If it was then Corbyn would have won in 2017 or 2019. Some unity and stability in the national interest would be nice.

I agree about backbenchers, but Starmer has been a fool too. The backbenchers didn’t force him to accept ‘gifts’ from supporters, or to remain loyal to the hapless Morgan McSweeney, to appoint Sue Gray or to target the winter fuel allowance. Any leader of the Labour Party has to be able to manage their PLP, its part of the job, and Starmer clearly can’t.

Yes. Wait till Greater Manchester are under a Reform mayor. And he may well not win the seat. He cant have a pop at it and go back to being Mayor!
AB should have supported Starmer that might actually help matters - wtf does he think everyone gossiping over a Labour leadership contest will do except cause more unrest.
Fuming.
Nail in coffin of a second term if he starts to position himself for a leadership contest.

I never said they’re knuckle dragging racists. The evidence says Reform has strong support in the North and Midlands, and less strong support down south.

You may not like it, it may not fit with your belief that Northerners are somehow better people, it’s what the polling suggests.

You sound really paranoid about being northern. Literally nobody cares!

Not paranoid or claiming to be better because I am northern. Just a stickler for facts.

I agree. I think this is a major problem with his leadership- that he hasn't handled the backbenchers. But they aren't children. They are playing silly buggers. Members of Parliament shouldn't need to be 'handled' as much as Labour MP's seem to have to be handled. And its not just Starmer. He's bad at it, but successful Labour PM's are only successful when they shut down the agitators in their own party. Tony Blair was being pushed to expel Jeremy Corbyn for all his endless voting against the government but he refused, because he knew he had a handle on the party (or at least Alistair Campbell did).
The Tories for many years had many disagreements but they saw keeping the Tories in government and supporting the government as more important than their personal grievances. Until Brexit and their open warfare and we can see what happened to them as a result. They have made themselves irrelevant because they behaved like the Labour Party. There have always been factions of Labour MP's would rather be in opposition than in power with someone in charge who is not ideologically pure enough (which no one will ever be)
Re the accepting gifts from his supporters- all MPs do it. Its not a story, as long as its declared. The Tories did it all the time, and for much more. Their own MP's didn't join in on the kicking. The Winter fuel allowance needed to be dealt with. They should have thought a bit more about it and set the removal at a higher rate than they did, but all parties have been desperate to ditch it. Sue Gray and Morgan McSweeny- I dont know enough about the ins and outs of that and as I have said, I dont think he has handled domestic matters brilliantly so far. He's weak, and a disappointment, but causing agitation in the party, having a divisive protracted leadership contest, which would go on for months 18 months into a term after 14 years out of power is so self destructive its untrue.

Some Labour backbenchers have always needed to be handled because they’re overgrown student politicians, but he can’t seem to do that. Agree with double standards re gifts and donations, but we all know that Labour leaders have to be extra careful as most of the media is right wing. But he’s failed at that too. Welfare does have to be addressed but he couldn’t have done a worse job if he tried. Why target pensioners first and why introduce legislation without being sure that enough MPs were behind it? He is a terrible leader and there is no way he will lead the Party into a second term. Keeping him there is asking for a Reform government.

Yes!

The problem with Starmer is he was basically elected for perceived competence (vs the perceived incompetence of the Conservatives), and not for visionary leadership. It’s been about getting on and getting stuff done. What we have has instead is high profile u-turns, delays on flagship policies, failure to capitalise on the stuff they have delivered (plus various factors outside their control that haven’t helped).

I don’t think there’s any way back from this - Starmer has lots his reputation for competence and that’s not what future elections will be fought over anyway.

At this stage of you could simply swap Starmer out and replace with someone else without a major drama or without it being symbolic of failure then absolutely I would be happy to see it done. But you can’t.

In principle I’d be happy to see Burnham lead but I can’t see a way it can happen without causing significant damage. I don’t understand why he would have put his name forward without having private chats to test the water either the NEC, and if he knew he didn’t have the support, what did he think would be gained by taking it public?

The rumours are amplified or are made up, by the right wing press & their supporters, why so many tory posters on here, v keen to see a Starmer challenge?

Same with all the budget crap, all nonsense, the so called leaks came from papers like the Mail, Telegraph etc papers that have supported Trump and Farage against the UK...

I don't believe they'll be a leadership contest, it would take 80 MPs.

All parties have terrible mid term council elections... will we see Badenoch challenged (assuming there is anyone left to challenge her)

Even if Burnham or anyone else replaced Starmer, they would surely face the exact same challenges as Starmer does.

We saw this with 5 Tory leaders in 14 years. I don’t like Starmer particularly but I want some stability. Replacing cabinet ministers also just causes instability and people come with new ideas which get replaced.

We need to stop trying to oust leaders and let them get on with it