Starmer to face Commons grilling as Streeting plans resignation speech

Sir Keir Starmer faces his first Commons grilling since the resignation of his health secretary and the by-election candidacy of potential leadership challenger Andy Burnham placed further pressure on his premiership.

The Prime Minister will take questions from Kemi Badenoch and other MPs, while ex-cabinet minister Wes Streeting was also expected to make a resignation speech in the chamber on Wednesday.

His noon showdown with the Opposition leader is the first since Parliament returned after the May elections that saw Labour suffer heavy losses and prompted mounting calls for Sir Keir to resign.

It comes after Mr Burnham was confirmed as the party’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, which was triggered by former minister Josh Simons quitting to open up a path for the Greater Manchester Mayor to return to Westminster.

It is understood that the mayor was the only person shortlisted for selection by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, bypassing a vote by the local party.

The decision sets up a contest between Mr Burnham and Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon, a local plumber who contested the seat for the party in 2024.

If he returns to Parliament, Mr Burnham is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir for the Labour leadership, but the Prime Minister has insisted he will not “walk away” from Downing Street.

Meanwhile, Mr Streeting, who criticised what he claimed was “drift” and a lack of direction within Government in a resignation letter last week, has also made clear he intends to stand in any contest.

Sir Keir has insisted he is “focused on the job” of governing and at a Downing Street reception for homelessness charities on Tuesday talked up the Government’s record on renters’ rights reforms as an example of “ripping up the failed status quo”, avoiding any mention of the turmoil engulfing the party in recent days.

Meanwhile, Defence Secretary John Healey warned Labour’s “credibility in Government is at stake” in an apparent rebuke of leadership jockeying among rivals looking to oust the Prime Minister.

“I don’t care about photo ops or PR firms. Politics – to me – is not about the individual. People will not forgive us if they think we’re more concerned about ourselves than we are about them,” he said.

But the unrest continued on Tuesday as former Welsh Labour first minister Mark Drakeford told Channel 4 News Sir Keir’s situation was “irrecoverable” and that he would support Mr Burnham to be his successor.

Elsewhere, the mayor said he was “proud and humbled” to be selected, and vowed to ensure the voices of people in Makerfield were “heard loud and clear”.

He has put himself forward as the candidate to “change Labour”, using a campaign video to call for a “new path for Britain”.

The by-election could yet prove a tough fight, with ex-MP Mr Simons winning in 2024 by just 5,399 votes while Reform comfortably won every ward in the constituency at last month’s local elections.

Writing in the Daily Express, Mrs Badenoch accused the Government of being “more interested in who will replace the Prime Minister than the job of governing the country”.