Who could replace Keir Starmer as Labour leader?

Speculation of a Labour leadership contest has gathered pace after Andy Burnham stopped short of saying he won’t stand against Keir Starmer. The mayor of Greater Manchester told “BBC Breakfast” last week that he hadn’t “launched any leadership challenge”, but he couldn’t “rule out what might or might not happen in future”.

No Labour prime minister has been “ousted by his party” or even “faced a formal leadership challenge from MPs” while in office, said The Guardian. But dire approval ratings have raised questions about Starmer – and his “potential successors”.

Andy Burnham

The mayor of Greater Manchester is the media favourite for a tilt at the leadership – he’s been at the epicentre of speculation about a move against Starmer since Labour’s autumn conference.

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But there would be obstacles for him to overcome: he’d have to step down as Manchester mayor, win a Commons seat in a by-election and then be nominated by at least 80 Labour MPs. Clive Lewis has said he is willing to step down as MP for Norwich South to pave the way for Burnham to return to the Commons, but Burnham has insisted he is “fully focused” on his mayoral duties.

Wes Streeting

The health secretary is a “prime suspect for a hypothetical coup” and “suspicions” over his “ambitions may have been prompted by him appearing to rise above his brief in recent months”, said The Telegraph.

Earlier this month he was forced to deny he was plotting a challenge. He told the BBC he could “not see any circumstances under which I would do that to our prime minister”. Widely seen as a “more charismatic version of Starmer”, his “weakness is that he is seen as too right wing” by progressives within the party, said The Independent.

Angela Rayner

Rayner, who quit the front bench in September after a report concluded she had broken the ministerial code by underpaying stamp duty on a property purchase, is “often considered as a potential successor” to Starmer, said The Guardian, and has “declined to rule out running for the job”.

The “socialist firebrand” would probably be a leading choice of the Labour left, which has “felt frozen out” by Starmer’s “centrist government”, said The Telegraph. As she’s currently away from the front bench, she could brand herself as the “clean break” candidate, said The Independent.

Shabana Mahmood

The home secretary already “speaks like a leader”, said The Spectator. Mahmood has shown “much-needed leadership” on migration, said The Independent, but this may work against her; she “may be considered too right-wing for the tastes of many in the party”. In the event of a leadership contest, “it may become a choice between her and Streeting not to split the vote”.

Ed Miliband

The Sun reported in September that the energy secretary was “on manoeuvres” – “plotting against his former pal” and trying to “destabilise” Starmer.

As a former party leader who “lost his bid for No. 10” in the 2015 election, Miliband “might fancy a stab at the job he never got to do”, said The Telegraph. With his CV, he “can claim to have a strong understanding of how to manage MPs”, but his bruising loss to David Cameron 10 years ago will “probably go against him”.