Burnham-Streeting latest: Leadership candidate’s call for UK to rejoin EU pulls Labour back into Brexit wars

Speculation about a Labour leadership contest has been “froth and nonsense”, a senior Cabinet minister has said.

Lisa Nandy was asked on Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips whether she believed Sir Keir Starmer will resign as prime minister by the summer holidays.

The culture secretary replied: “No, I don’t.

“I have spoken to the prime minister several times over the last week and he was very clear with the Cabinet on Tuesday that if people want to challenge him there is a process for doing that, there is a way to trigger a leadership contest, to be leader of the Labour Party and to succeed him as Prime Minister.

“Nobody has done that yet, despite the absolute feverish speculation.

“Every hour on the hour for the last week I’ve read that Wes Streeting was about to launch a challenge; that Andy Burnham was about to contest every seat in Greater Manchester, including my own; that Angela Rayner was written off, that Angela Rayner was now challenging; and most of it has turned out to be just froth and nonsense.

“We’ve got to get on with the job.”

Revisiting the Brexit debate is like saying “life was fine in 2015, we just need to go back there”, Lisa Nandy said in a rebuke of her Labour colleague Wes Streeting.

The culture secretary told Sky News’ Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips: “I like and respect Wes a lot, and I listened carefully to what he had to say yesterday, I think you know I have a different perspective on this, and we do as a government.”

Labour MP Josh Simons, who announced on Thursday that he would give up his seat to make way for Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to return to Parliament, said the party should “come together” to back him.

He told the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg: “If Andy wins the by-election, my view is that the different bits of the party should come together behind Andy.”

Asked if that would mean “the end of Keir Starmer”, Mr Simons responded: “By implication, yeah.”

Our Whitehall editor Kate Devlin reports:

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, has accused Wes Streeting of “re-opening the Brexit wars” as she became the first Labour sitting cabinet minister to be tackled over his call to rejoin the EU.

She told Sky News that the government was “trying to take a far more pragmatic approach” to bringing the UK closer to the bloc.

That was about “repairing some of the damage that was done from a poor Brexit deal to people’s living standards in parts of the country like mine, rather than re-opening the Brexit wars”.

She added: “I just think it’s a bit odd, if I’m honest.”

She said that last week parts of the country like Wigan, which she represents, lost a huge amount of councillors to the pro-Brexit Reform.

She added: “If rejoining the EU is the answer, then essentially what we’re saying to people is life was fine in 2015 we just need to go back there. I know Wes is coming up to campaign in the by-election quite soon. He will hear loud and clear from people in places like Wigan… that is absolutely not the case, and the answer has to be bigger. It has to be the sort of things this government is focusing on, around good jobs, housing, living standards, costs of energy, opportunities for young people.”

Former Communities Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, who was the first minister to resign from Keir Starmer’s government after the elections, said she doesn’t think Labour can have a leadership race without Andy Burnham.

Speaking to the BBC’s Political Thinking with Nick Robinson podcast on Saturday, she said: “I don’t think you can have a leadership race without him in because… he commands so much support within the Labour movement.”

She added that his track record in the city “suggests that you can have a vision, you can have a project, and you can execute it in the way that can lift your communities up”.

Tens of thousands gathered in London for Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom march and a pro-Palestine Nakba Day rally, as police mounted a £4.5 million operation to prevent clashes between rival groups.

At least 43 people were arrested across both demonstrations for a “variety of offences”, the Metropolitan Police said, adding that while the number “may seem high, to this point both protests have proceeded largely without significant incident”.

More than 4,000 police officers were deployed to the capital with 660 being drafted in from forces outside the Met to prepare for an “unprecedented” security operation. Armoured vehicles, police horses, dogs, drones and helicopters were also on the scene.

“We need a proper contest with the best candidates on the field, and I’ll be standing,” he told reporters at a conference in central London on Saturday.

Mr Streeting, who this week stood down as health secretary, also insisted he did have enough support among MPs to trigger a contest, but suggested his challenge would “lack legitimacy” without rival Andy Burnham being given a chance to return to Parliament.

He will, however, still call for close ties between the UK and the European Union, according to reports.

If Mr Burnham wins that seat, he would face a challenge from former health secretary Wes Streeting, who has confirmed he will be standing, should a Labour leadership contest to replace Sir Keir Starmer be triggered.

Andy Burnham has said he is running in the Makerfield by-election to “save” Labour.

Speaking to the BBC, the mayor for Greater Manchester said Labour has to acknowledge it has “not been good enough”, adding it “requires a lot of change”.

“I want Labour solidly to be the part of working class people people are working class and that requires a lot of change,” he added.

It comes after he was given the go ahead by the NEC to run in the by-election.