Labour‘s Clive Lewis has become the first MP to call for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to be replaced by Andy Burnham.
Speaking to Channel 4 on Friday night, Mr Lewis said the Labour Party must put ‘country before party’ and boot out Starmer in favour of the current Mayor of Greater Manchester.
The MP for Norwich South broke ranks from the rest of his party for the first time in September, when he called for the Prime Minister to stand down.
But last night he became the first to actively endorse leadership rival Mr Burnham, in a week in which a briefing to journalists put the Prime Minister in a precarious position ahead of this month’s Budget.
Mr Clive said: ‘We need to do what the Prime Minister once said, which is put country before party. And frankly, party before personal ambition.
‘I just don’t see how this can stagger on without any kind of resolution on the horizon.
‘And I think the Labour party, the Labour grandees, the men in grey suits now really, seriously think, how can we get Andy Burnham back in to this parliamentary Labour Party and let him step up and become the next Prime Minister?
‘That’s my personal view. I know it won’t be shared by everyone, but I don’t see many other options.’
Labour’s Clive Lewis (pictured) has become the first MP to call for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to be replaced by Andy Burnham
Mr Burnham was previously accused of angling for the top job in the days leading up to the Labour Party Conference earlier in the autumn
Andy Burnham has not commented on Mr Lewis’s remarks.
It comes after Mr Lewis first called for Starmer to go on September 12, the day after former US ambassador Lord Peter Mandelson was sacked over his friendship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
He told the BBC’s The Week In Westminster programme at the time: ‘You see a Labour Prime Minister who feels that he’s lost control within the first year.
‘This isn’t navel-gazing. This is me thinking about my constituents, this country, and the fact that the person who is eight points ahead of us is Nigel Farage. That terrifies me. It terrifies my constituents, and it terrifies a lot of people in this country.
‘We don’t have the luxury of carrying on this way with someone who I think increasingly, I’m sorry to say, just doesn’t seem up to the job.’
Mr Lewis cemented his position as a troublemaker for the government with his comments yesterday, which came at a particularly challenging moment for Starmer following a ‘toxic’ briefing to journalists.
In what appeared to be an effort to help shore up the Prime Minister’s position, No.10 briefed journalists that he would strongly fight back against any attempt to oust him, and criticised cabinet ministers including the Health Secretary Wes Streeting for allegedly making moves to mount a leadership challenge.
But it completely backfired with the briefing making front-page news across British media and instead gave the impression Starmer does not have control of his Downing Street staff.
Speaking to Channel 4 on Friday night, Mr Lewis said the Labour Party must put ‘country before party’ and boot out Starmer (pictured)
Starmer claimed after the fact he did not authorise any briefing himself, and many MPs were quick to point the finger at his unpopular chief of staff Morgan McSweeney.
The Prime Minister cleared Mr McSweeney of involvement, but it has not stopped disgruntled MPs clamouring for the chief of staff to go.
Meanwhile Health Secretary Streeting denied any plot to unseat his party leader and accused those behind the anonymous briefing as having ‘watched too much Celebrity Traitors’.
The Prime Minister has since phoned Mr Streeting to apologise, it is understood.
The row has left Starmer once again facing speculation on whether he will make it to the next election as Labour Leader, with Mr Burnham’s name cropping up likely to be another blow.
Mr Burnham was previously accused of angling for the top job in the days leading up to the Labour Party Conference earlier in the autumn.
The Manchester mayor, who twice failed to be elected leader of the party when he was an MP, accused Sir Keir of leading Labour into a mood of ‘alienation and demoralisation’ since entering No.10.
He said he had been approached by MPs who wanted him to mount a leadership challenge and outlined his own tax-and-spend manifesto that included £40billion of borrowing to fund nationalising housebuilding.
It prompted a huge backlash from ministers who pointed out his term as Manchester mayor runs until 2028.
As the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Mr Burnham is not a sitting MP.
