Keir Starmer says he wants to offer Burnham ‘big role’ in government to avoid leadership contest – UK politics live

Former health secretary Wes Streeting also threatened to launch a leadership contest if the prime minister did not set out a timetable to step down

Warning shots fired by a Russian warship sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning were “deeply concerning and reckless”, Keir Starmer said this morning. Alexandra Topping and Dan Sabbagh have the story.

Speaking to reporters at the G7 summit, Keir Starmer said it would be wrong for Labour to hold a leadership challenge ahead of a likely election to replace Andy Burnham as mayor of Greater Manchester.

First and foremost, I want Andy Burnham to win, and that’s why I’ve encouraged activists and members to go up there during the course of the campaign, and they’ll be up there tomorrow helping to get the vote out.

Then what happens is we’re immediately tipped into a Manchester mayoral contest byelection, one of the biggest byelections that we’ve ever fought, because of the scale of it.

If there is a challenge, then I intend to fight.

I’m not going to walk away from that, and I’ve been clear and consistent about that.
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