Minister supports Burnham as Labour MPs split over possible contest for leadership

Leading ally of the PM Nick Thomas-Symonds has said he is backing Andy Burnham to succeed Sir Keir Starmer as Labour leader and prime minister.

Thomas-Symonds, who is a Cabinet Office minister, was one of about 200 Labour MPs pictured with Burnham after he was sworn in as an MP on Monday.

Since Sir Keir announced he was stepping down, Labour MPs have been debating whether there should be a contest to replace him or whether possible contenders should withdraw to give Burnham, the frontrunner, a clear path to No 10.

Former defence minister Al Carns and senior minister Darren Jones are both understood to be considering running, now former health secretary Wes Streeting has ditched his own bid.

Thomas-Symonds told BBC Breakfast he was backing Burnham because the party needed "someone with a track record of delivery and delivering change and that's what we've seen from Andy as Mayor of Greater Manchester".

He added: "But secondly somebody who is best placed to defeat Reform at the next general election."

Thomas-Symonds pointed to Burnham beating Reform by more than 9,000 votes in Makerfield, adding: "My judgement is simply that we do need to be facing outward to the country and a swift and orderly transition is what I'll be supporting."

Some MPs, including Nottingham East's Nadia Whittome, say a contest over the summer is the only democratic way for Labour to test candidates' ideas.

But many of those MPs who remained loyal to Sir Keir to the end are highly sceptical of backing a challenge against Burnham – making it seem unlikely that Jones or Carns would actually be able to muster the 81 backers needed to enter a contest.

An ally of Jones was heavily playing down the likelihood that he would ultimately end up trying to stand.

They said that Jones merely wanted to know more about Burnham's platform, especially on economic policy.

Whittome, a member of Labour's Socialist Campaign Group, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme having a contest would help decide how Labour should tackle the problems facing the country, including the cost of living crisis.

"We can't answer that question without candidates setting out their stall transparently, and being scrutinised by members and by unions," she said.

"I also think it's important to say that a lack of party democracy and a lack of debate around politics and policies is part of what led us here in the first place, so it would be a mistake for us not to use this opportunity to learn where we went wrong and to figure out where we go next."

But Jo White, one of Labour's Red Wall MPs who back a crackdown on immigration, disagreed a contest was needed at all when Burnham already had so much support.

Speaking to the same programme she said: "To be honest I think it [a contest] is going to be a pointless charade.

"The majority of MPs I've spoken to so far, even MPs I hadn't anticipated, are telling me they're going to be backing Andy."

Calling for her party to get on with governing, White said she did not want to spend now until the start of September examining the party rather than working for the country.

"If we have a competition or a contest, this whole thing will extend until September," she said.

"The Labour party loves turning in on itself, naval gazing I call it, and I've been very much scarred by the Corbyn years where we spent too long looking at ourselves rather than thinking about the country and doing what's best for the country."

Another Labour MP, Melanie Ward has shifted her backing from Streeting to Burnham, and claimed Burnham's policy platform as a potential prime minister would be scrutinised whether or not there were any other candidates.

"Whether or not there is a contest, and we don't know yet whether anyone will choose to stand against Andy, there will be a process," the MP for Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy told Today.

"We are waiting today for details of exactly how that process will look, how it will work. We know that there will be hustings.

"Andy will be setting out his programme for government, his ideas for things that he wants to do to bring the kind of change that our country needs."

Pressed on how there could be a husting without any other candidates, Ward said Burnham would have to set out his policies in front of Labour MPs to be scrutinised.