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"path": "/2026/05/11/main-runners-riders-battle-keir-starmer-top-job-28320700/",
"publishedAt": "2026-05-11T13:22:00.000Z",
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"textContent": "Leadership rivals have been circling the Prime Minister following the local election results (Picture: Getty / Reuters / PA/ Shutterstock)\n\nKeir Starmer is fighting for his political life as rumours swirl that he will face a leadership challenge.\n\nThe Prime Minister warned during a ‘reset’ speech this morning that replacing him would plunge the country into chaos.\n\nDozens of Labour MPs have been queuing up to urge Sir Keir to step down or lay our a timetable for leaving office.\n\nHowever no big beast has come forward to say they want the top job, and one fringe contender has stepped back from the brink.\n\nThe root cause of the uncertainty is that there is not an heir apparent, but a cluster of rivals who could battle it out to replace the PM.\n\n**Metro** analyses who the future Prime Ministers could be and what is stopping them from running.\n\n## Want to understand politics better?\n\nMetro's senior politics reporter Craig Munro breaks down political chaos into easy to follow insight, in **Metro** 's politics newsletter Alright, Gov? Sent every Wednesday. Sign up here.\n\n## Andy Burnham\n\nAndy Burnham cannot stand to replace Sir Keir until he finds a seat (Picture: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)\n\nDubbed the ‘King of the North’, the mayor of Greater Manchester is popular among Labour MPs and party members.\n\nPolling data from April 2026 also shows he is the only major Labour politician with a positive net favourability rating, currently at +9.\n\nHe has repeatedly failed to rule out ambitions to reach Number 10 and revealed last September that dozens of MPs were privately urging him to stand.\n\nHowever, he is currently the elephant not in the room.\n\nBurnham is not an MP and, therefore, not able to run in a Labour leadership contest.\n\nThe Manchester mayor made a bid to stand as a candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year, but Labour’s Starmer-friendly national executive committee blocked him.\n\nAndy Burnham is viewed as a politician who can attract back disenchanted Labour voters (Picture: Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)\n\nBurham appears to be one of the main reasons why some Labour MPs are now holding back from toppling Sir Keir.\n\nHis allies need to buy him time to find an open seat in Parliament, and hope that this time Starmer is so weak they can’t stop him standing.\n\nHowever the Prime Minister’s supporters still think they can stop their biggest threat returning.\n\nBusiness and Trade Secretary Peter Kyle suggested on the morning round this morning that it was ‘not the time’ for Burnham to come back.\n\n## Angela Rayner\n\nAngela Rayner has issued a warning shot to the Prime Minister for change (Picture: Carl Court/Getty Images)\n\nThe former Deputy Prime Minister has been closely watched by the media since she resigned from Sir Keir’s cabinet last September when it was revealed she had underpaid stamp duty on her Brighton flat.\n\nHer achievements in government, notably the Employment Rights Act and the Renters’ Rights Act, have made her popular among the left-wing factions in the Labour Party.\n\nShe is also the only Labour figure besides Burnham with positive ratings among the party’s own 2024 voters, at 48 per cent favourable against 33 per cent unfavourable.\n\nHowever her net rating stands at -31 among the general public as a whole.\n\nShe is now the centre of an HMRC investigation into her stamp duty affairs.\n\nIt is thought she will have to wait until that concludes before she can launch a challenge.\n\nRayner has come out firing since the party’s local election drubbing, saying the party ‘needs to change’ and it ‘may be our last chance’.\n\nHowever she seems to have rowed in behind Burnham, saying he ‘should never have been blocked’ from seeking a seat in the Commons.\n\nThis has fueled speculation of a pact after it was reported the pair met in April.\n\n## Wes Streeting\n\nWes Streeting has consistently denied plotting to be PM (Picture: Zeynep Demir/Anadolu via Getty Images)\n\nThe articulate health secretary is considered the most likely challenger from within the Cabinet.\n\nReports suggest he has picked up the backing of enough Labour MPs to launch a leadership bid.\n\nHe is considered popular among centre-right members who think he can connect with the public.\n\nSpeculation about his leadership hopes reached fever pitch when a briefing war exploded in the heart of government in November last year.\n\nIt started when reports circulated that Streeting was plotting to challenge the PM and that Sir Keir was prepared to fight.\n\nThe health secretary appeared emboldened by the row and shut down the rumours on live TV, leaving some to blame Number 10’s chief advisor Morgan McSweeney for the chaos.\n\nHowever, his popularity ratings are also low among the public and a host of MPs feel he is too far to the right.\n\nThere is also the problem of his seat of Ilford North, which he won with a razor-thin and unreliable majority of 528 over a pro-Palestine candidate.\n\nThere are also fears he is politically linked with Peter Mandelson and Streeting has admitted he ‘absolutely’ questioned his judgement on the issue.\n\nStreeting has also consistently denied plotting to be leader.\n\n## Ed Miliband\n\nEd Miliband has already had one go at the top job (Picture: Thomas Krych/Anadolu via Getty Images)\n\nIt would usually be untenable for a former leader who lost an election to make a come back to the top job.\n\nBut there are reports that numerous MPs from the Labour left are urging him to step forward.\n\nThe energy secretary is the most popular cabinet member among the Labour membership, polling suggests.\n\nHis green energy agenda could also offer voters a unique agenda that could combat the Green surge.\n\nHowever the general feeling is that Miliband does not want to wear the crown.\n\nAllies told The Times that his aim is to be kingmaker to a Burnham leadership bid – and to be rewarded with the chancellorship in return.\n\nThere are also fears he would lack credibility, given the fact the public rejected Labour when he was leader at the 2015 general election.\n\n## Catherine West\n\nWest became the unexpected star of Labour leadership speculation (Picture: Johnny Armstead/Shutterstock)\n\nThe veteran backbencher – who once Jeremy Corbyn for leader – burst into the Labour leadership race when she announced she would stand against Sir Keir on Monday if no other Cabinet member did.\n\nThe Hornsey and Friern Barnet MP said she would decide whether to challenge Starmer after watching his speech on Monday morning.\n\nAn hour after Sir Keir took to the stage, West described his speech as ‘too little too late’.\n\nHowever, she rowed back on challenging the Prime Minster herself.\n\nInstead she sent an email to all her colleagues, collecting supporters for the Labour leader to set a timetable for the election of a new leader in\n\n******Get in touch with our news team by emailing us atwebnews@metro.co.uk.******\n\n**For more stories like this,** check our news page.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
"title": "The main runners and riders who could battle Keir Starmer for the top job"
}