Labour Leadership Runners And Riders: Who Could Replace Keir Starmer As Prime Minister?

Keir Starmer has vowed to fight on, but his rivals are circling.

Keir Starmer may have vowed to fight on this morning – but the smart money is still on him having to leave 10 Downing Street sooner rather than later.

The prime minister told his cabinet to get on with running the country as he called on his leadership rivals to put up or shut up.

Starmer loyalists Peter Kyle, Pat McFadden, Liz Kendall and Steve Reed than took the highly unusual step of speaking to the media in support of the PM after the cabinet meeting ended.

Nevertheless, the number of Labour MPs calling on the prime minister to quit in the wake of last week’s local election drubbing now stands at over 80, while junior minister Miatta Fahnbulleh has also resigned.

Under Labour Party rules, a challenger to the party leader must get the support of one-fifth of its MPs to trigger a contest, meaning they would currently need the backing of 81 of their colleagues.

Here, HuffPost UK looks at the likely runners and riders in the race to replace the PM.

Burnham was an MP until 2017, and during his 16 years in parliament served as a junior minister under Tony Blair and in Gordon Brown’s cabinet. He also tries and failed on two occasions to be elected Labour leader.

In the nine years since he quit Westminster, he has been the mayor of Greater Manchester, during which time his stock has continued to rise.

He is undoubtedly the most popular Labour politician in the country, which is confirmed by........

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