One week before May’s local elections, and all eyes are on Sir Keir Starmer’s position at the helm of the Labour Party.
The upcoming polls have widely been touted as judgement day for the prime minister, with the party expected to face a crushing defeat as 5,000 council seats come up for grabs.
Sir Keir has faced relentless criticism of his leadership since he took office in July 2024, compounded by a string of U-turns on key policy and the Peter Mandelson scandal.
The elections mark a perfect opportunity for others in the Labour Party – some of whom are said to have been planning their leadership challenges for months – to finally strike.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has been widely considered the most popular candidate, but is currently unable to run as he is not a sitting MP.
Sir Keir’s former deputy Angela Rayner is also said to be a frontrunner, alongside the current health secretary Wes Streeting.
Here, The Independent looks at each of the potential leadership candidates, and you can have your say:
Andy Burnham
Popular amongst Labour MPs, party members and the general public, the mayor of Greater Manchester has been hinting at a leadership bid for months.
Recent YouGov polling puts Mr Burnham far ahead of any other Labour figure in popularity polls, with 34 per cent of Britons thinking he’d do a better job than Sir Keir.
Last year, Mr Burnham repeatedly failed to rule out a Labour leadership bid and has been regularly tipped as the leading candidate to take over should Sir Keir’s position as prime minister become untenable.
He was the focus of such rumours at the Labour Party conference last September, when he revealed that dozens of MPs were privately urging him to challenge the prime minister.
However, as the mayor of Manchester, he is currently unable to launch an official bid as he is not a sitting MP.
Earlier this year, tensions came to a head when a parliamentary seat came up in the northwest constituency of Gorton and Denton.
Mr Burnham put himself forward to run for Labour in the historically safe seat, but was blocked by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
Despite the government insisting the move was down to the potential cost of a Manchester mayoral election, critics accused Sir Keir and his allies of preventing the candidacy for factional reasons and out of fear of a leadership challenge.
But Mr Burnham’s return to Westminster is not totally off the cards, with some MPs hoping to stave off a competition until another seat comes up for him, paving the way for him to challenge for the Labour leadership.
Angela Rayner
Rumours about the Ashton-under-Lyme MP’s ambitions have been thrown around from the moment she resigned from Sir Keir’s cabinet last September after it was revealed she had underpaid stamp duty on her Brighton flat.
Once the prime minister’s number two, Rayner is popular on the soft left of the party and has been named as one of the MPs most likely to stage a coup against him.
Earlier this year, she launched what was widely seen as her clearest challenge to Sir Keir, as she warned Labour is “running out of time” to deliver change and cannot “go through the motions in the face of decline”.
Earlier this month, rumours of a joint bid with Andy Burnham were sparked after she met with the Greater Manchester Mayor amid rumblings of a challenge to Sir Keir.
Working with the Greater Manchester mayor could prove essential for Ms Rayner, who is trailing behind him in popularity polls with only 15 per cent of voters believing she’d do a better job than Sir Keir.
But there have been mixed signals regarding whether the former deputy prime minister would be keen on ousting Sir Keir altogether, or just rejoining his cabinet.
In December, the prime minister described Rayner as “hugely talented” and said he would like to see her return to his frontbench.
And in what was seen as a last-ditch attempt to secure his position ahead of the elections, Sir Keir reportedly offered Rayner a spot back in his cabinet this week.
Either way, it is unlikely she will be able to make a move until after the investigation into her tax affairs has been settled, which is expected to be in the coming weeks.
Wes Streeting
The health secretary is considered to be the most likely candidate to replace Sir Keir from within his own sitting cabinet.
Positioned in the centre of the Labour Party, Streeting is a charismatic cabinet minister who is able to connect with the public.
Chatter about a potential leadership bid grew louder towards the end of last year, amid a briefing war targeting the health secretary over his perceived ambitions to succeed Sir Keir.
He has previously voiced his concerns about the direction of the government, and hit out at a “toxic culture” in No 10 when the briefings against him were made public in November.
Earlier this year, as questions around Sir Keir’s future reached fever pitch, the health secretary took the controversial decision to publish communications between himself and Lord Mandelson, which contained severe criticism of the PM’s economic and Middle East policies.
The publication broke collective responsibility and would normally lead to a sacking, but Mr Streeting justified it by saying it was necessary to deal with “smears” that had been made about his relationship with the disgraced former Labour peer.
The main obstacle facing Streeting is the perception among some factions of Labour that he is too far to the right of the party, and the general feeling that he does not have enough backing to launch a successful bid.
His public popularity ratings are also low, with only 13 per cent of voters thinking he’d do a better job than Sir Keir.
Ed Miliband
Ed Miliband has emerged as an unexpected contender to be the prime minister – over 10 years since he led the party to defeat in 2015.
But in his time away from the helm, the energy secretary has carved a niche for himself as the party’s top advocate for green energy and net zero.
Surprisingly popular among young people on social media, speculation has been rife that Miliband is preparing an attempt to make a comeback as leader.
The recent Mandelson scandal has seen him grow increasingly critical of the government, telling broadcasters last week that he had raised concerns about the appointment with David Lammy at the time.
A supporter of Miliband told The Independent recently: “He has the energy and enthusiasm. He is loved by younger members of the party. He is a new man from when he was last leader.”
Despite the noise, Miliband has denied he is eyeing up a leadership bid, and polling also suggests only 13 per cent of voters think he’d do a better job than the current prime minister.