Labour backbencher, Barry Gardiner, has said he doesn’t want to see a Labour leadership contest, but that the PM should go.

Gardiner, who has been a Labour MP continuously for almost three decades, said he believes Keir Starmer should be “able to go with dignity”.

Speaking to Sky News, Gardiner said:

I think what we will see is the prime minister setting out a timescale. I want him to be able to go with dignity. I think it should not be, in any way, a contest that humiliates him. Although I do understand why people say it would be good to have a contest so people can set out their stalls and we can be clear about exactly what Andy Burnham is offering.

Labour MP for Chesterfield, Toby Perkins, a Starmer loyalist, said it needs to be clear whether a new leader would take the party on a “radical departure” from the manifesto it was elected on two years ago.

Meanwhile, the former safeguarding minister Jess Phillips, who resigned from the government in May, said candidates should at least present their ideas to the Parliamentary Labour Party.

“I very much hope that over the next week, at least, that whilst we may not end up with a full-scale contest, that there is an opportunity to properly question, in somewhat of a public forum, what’s coming next?,” she told the BBC.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has written in the Mail on Sunday that her party would never sign up to an electoral pact with Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader.

“We are not the same, and voters are not ours to trade like football cards,” she wrote, as she claimed that Reform are in favour of a bigger state, nationalisation and “unfunded giveaways”. “Reform dress like Thatcherites but act like Corbynites,” Badenoch wrote.

“Farage may be trying to unite the right, I am trying to unite the country.” This statement jars with the reality of the Conservatives trying hard to win back some of their voters by adopting divisive Reform-like stances on issues such as immigration and asylum policy.

At national level, Badenoch, whose party has consistently trialled behind Reform in national polls, and Farage have both rejected talk that they could go into the next election with some sort of electoral pact.

A string of conservative MPs and former ministers have defected from the Tories to Reform over recent months, citing their disillusionment with the party. But their defections have led many to question how different Farage’s party is to previous Conservative administrations that he blames for huge failures in governance and policy – especially on immigration.

The Guardian’s economics editor, Heather Stewart, has written an interesting analysis piece suggesting it would be wise for Andy Burnham to set clear expectations about tax and spend if he is not to spook the bond markets in the likely event he becomes prime minister. Here is an extract from her analysis in our weekly economics viewpoint column:

Burnham’s every pronouncement – and that of whoever he picks as chancellor – will now be watched intently by the markets.

If his team are serious about nationalisation of key utilities, they may well want to borrow significantly more – something Rachel Reeves’s rules allow for, where the government gets a financial asset, such as a shareholding, in return.

The logic is that the nation’s balance sheet has barely changed, if it takes on a new liability to bondholders, but that’s matched with something that generates a financial return.

The bond markets may be wary of taking such a laid-back view, however, if a Burnham government cannot show that when it comes to day-to-day spending – pensions, benefits, public services – it has a plan to make ends meet.

Under Labour party rules, any MP who wishes to challenge to be leader needs the backing of at least 20% of the parliamentary party, or 81 MPs.

The former health secretary, Wes Streeting, has pledged to seek the top job and says he has sufficient backers, but allies of Keir Starmer and Andy Burnham are sceptical.

His candidacy will become less likely if wavering Labour backbenchers conclude that they would prefer to back a likely winner and swing behind Burnham.

Starmer’s departure will set the UK on course for a seventh prime minister in 10 years, just two years after he led Labour to a sweeping general election victory, winning a majority of 174 seats.

His premiership has been battered by controversies and U-turns, including over winter fuel payments to older people and the decision to appoint Peter Mandelson as UK ambassador to Washington.

Labour has slumped in the polls, and Starmer himself is enormously unpopular with much of the public. Reform UK has led for more than 300 consecutive national polls and many Labour MPs are increasingly convinced that without a change of leader, Nigel Farage will win the next election.

The former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak has given Andy Burnham some advice in a piece for the Sunday Times. As a reminder, in July 2024 Sunak lost to Keir Starmer in what was the Tory party’s worst general election defeat in its parliamentary history. Sunak, who is still the MP for Richmond and Northallerton, wrote:

Burnham must recognise that if he reaches No 10, he’ll never have more power than on his first day in the job. It is vital he has a clear and achievable plan for what he wants to do in those opening hours.

Those around Burnham will want to get him there by forcing Starmer out through ministerial resignations and the like. Burnham shouldn’t want to become PM by default, though.

I remember on the morning after Boris Johnson dropped out in October 2022, I kept suggesting to my team that we should want a contest, that it would be good for us.

They assumed that I was just emotionally preparing for another candidate getting the necessary nominations and having to go through a leadership election. But I actually meant it. Without one, your mandate is weak, and you end up being bound by commitments that aren’t your priorities.

Some commentators have said Andy Burnham is just a better communicator than Keir Starmer, but have questioned how different he is on policy.

The Guardian’s policy editor, Kiran Stacey, has helpfully looked at the political projects a Burnham government would likely pursue in this useful explainer:

As he spent Sunday at Chequers considering his premiership, Keir Starmer took the time to post on social media about father’s day. He wrote on X:

Being a dad is my greatest joy.Today, I’m thinking about my dad, and the father I am to my children because of him. Happy Father’s Day.

The shadow chancellor, Mel Stride, said nothing will fundamentally change if Andy Burnham replaces Keir Starmer as prime minister because the Labour party is “addicted” to debt and borrowing – and that is something that will continue under new leadership.

On Burnham specifically, Stride told Sky News: “This is somebody who has flip-flopped all over the place. You have seen it even in this byelection itself.”

“He doesn’t apparently understand what the fiscal rules are. He said rather foolish things about the bond markets in the past. The markets are watching,” Stride said, in reference to Bunrham previously suggesting the country should be less in hock to the reaction of bond traders. The outgoing Greater Manchester mayor has since bolstered his team of economic advisers in an apparent attempt to boost his fiscal credibility.

Stride went on to say that Burnham taking over as prime minister would be “bad and in the wrong direction”. The Conservatives would like Starmer to stay as leader because of his deep unpopularity across the country, as reflected in Labour’s disastrous election results across England, Scotland and Wales in May.

Peter Kyle has been speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on her Sunday politics programme. The business secretary repeated very similar lines to the ones he gave Sky News earlier this morning, notably that Keir Starmer is taking the time this weekend to think through the “political realities” he faces “today” (compared to the last two weeks). He said Starmer will reflect on what is in the country’s best interest.

Peter Kyle said Labour should not descend into infighting in the way that the Conservatives did whenever they faced a “moment of political challenge”. The Tories were readily defeated at the 2024 election by Starmer after churning through five prime ministers in seven years, including three during 2022.

When asked if he thinks it is in the country’s interest for Keir Starmer to go, Peter Kyle tellingly dodged the question and said it was imperative for the government to continue to function despite the political turbulence. He told Sky News:

My priority when I think what my role is in putting the country first is to uphold the authority of this government to make sure we can govern through a moment of political challenge and that we are 100% focused on delivering.