Andy Burnham inches closer to UK premiership as Starmer seeks legacy in final days |
LONDON (AP) — Andy Burnham took a step closer to becoming Britain’s next prime minister without a contest on Wednesday when Cabinet minister Darren Jones, touted as a possible rival, said he would not run.
Meanwhile Keir Starmer, seeking to secure a legacy before he leaves office, faced the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament before flying to Berlin to meet European allies for talks on Ukraine and the Middle East.
Starmer announced his plan to resign on Monday and will be out of office within weeks once the governing Labour Party picks a new leader.
Starmer and his government took a roasting from Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch, who reeled off a list of alleged failures and said the Labour Party had betrayed and abandoned Starmer for Burnham, whom she joked was just “a pair of eyelashes and a black T-shirt.”
Starmer said he was proud of his record, arguing that he had worked to reverse years of austerity under the Conservatives.
“The test for every prime minister is handing over this country in better shape than you found it,” he said. “I know I can do that.”
Jones, a Starmer ally, had been encouraged to run so that Burnham faces a test of his ideas and policies in front of Labour lawmakers and members. Others argue that a leadership contest will only focus attention on the party’s internal divisions and extend a period of political uncertainty.
Jones told Sky News that running for the leadership is “not something that I’m going to do.”
But he cautioned Burnham against veering........