Wounded Keir Starmer is lurching from one crisis to another… meanwhile ex-Labour big beast smells blood in the water

ANDY BURNHAM smells blood in the water.

Sir , the man elected as Prime Minister just over a year ago, is walking wounded, desperately lurching from one crisis to another, spiralling downwards in the polls as his authority seeps away.

With Keir Starmer stumbling from one crisis to the next, Andy Burnham is positioning himself as the northern challenger to Labour’s crown A wounded Starmer has tried to fight back as the Mayor of Greater Manchester makes no secret of his ambitions

All hail, then, the king over the water — or a couple of hundred miles up north anyway — who looks set to challenge Starmer for the and that coveted job in Number 10.

, is making no secret of his ambitions to claim the Labour crown.

Forget the typical politicians’ coy “I’m busy doing the job I’m in right now” faux denials we usually get from would-be assassins just days before they wield the knife.

Tough fight

No, Burnham is all in and, boy, does he want everyone to know about it.

While he insists he is not “plotting” to oust Starmer, he openly states that Labour MPs are privately calling on him to mount a challenge.

But, he says, it’s up to them to decide.

So can the King of the North take on the King of North and help his party’s MPs hold on to their seats at the next election in the face of the mounting threats from not just but ?

Well, , and not just among members.

He’s also got broad appeal as a politician with charisma, who comes from an ordinary background and talks like a normal human being, something Starmer struggles to do.

The mayor also played a political blinder during the Covid , on our TV screens most days — in his trademark T-shirt and jacket — demanding more help for Mancunian businesses and workers losing their livelihoods during lockdowns.

But is this “man of the people” all he’s cracked up to be?

After all, Andy Burnham, hailed as the party’s Great White Hope today, has already TWICE been rejected as Labour leader, losing out to in 2010 and in 2015.

Burnham has also been noticeably quiet about the burning political issues of tackling mass legal and illegal immigration, rising crime, the soaring welfare bill and stagnant economic growth.

Julia Hartley-Brewer

And, having already metamorphosed from arch Blairite to staunch Brownite to Hard leftie over his career, Burnham was widely derided as “” at Westminster thanks to his ever-changing opinions and policy U-turns during his 2015 bid.

Winning the Greater Manchester mayoralty two years later was his saving grace, turning him into the chief cheerleader for the North. But will it be enough of a springboard for national leadership?

He already has the bones of a manifesto all ready to go, calling for cuts for lower earners, a 50p top rate of tax, a national revaluation of to increase rates on properties in London and the South East, £40billion of borrowing to build more council houses and a plan to take public utilities back into public ownership.

All policies likely to go down well with left-wing Labour Party members, but will the majority of mainstream voters agree when they find out how much all that is going to cost them?

Burnham has also been noticeably quiet about the burning political issues of tackling mass legal and illegal , rising , the and stagnant economic growth.

Easy to dodge when you’re a mayor, not so much when you are the Prime Minister.

He does face a few key obstacles before that can happen. His first job will be to get back into .

(if any still exist) to stand down and force a by-election.

Next, Burnham has to get himself selected as the Labour candidate, something of a tall order given the tight control Keir Starmer’s chief of staff has over the party’s NEC which decides such things.

Then he has to win the by-election — another major challenge given the threat posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform party, which has vowed to throw everything at such a campaign.

The Number 10 machine has already started flinging mud in a bid to stop the challenger in his tracks, claiming Burnham would ‘crash the economy’ with his push to drag the country to the left.

Julia Hartley-Brewer

And even if Burnham CAN get himself back on to those Commons benches, he will still have a tough fight on his hands to mount a challenge to Keir Starmer, with the rules requiring 80 Labour MPs to publicly declare for him before any leadership challenge could even begin.

Meanwhile, the in a bid to stop the challenger in his tracks, claiming Burnham would “crash the economy” with his push to drag the country to the left.

Not that any of this is dampening Burnham’s burning ambition.

With the Labour conference starting this weekend, a taxing Budget ahead in November and local, Scottish and Welsh elections next May that could prove catastrophic for Starmer, Burnham knows he needs to strike now while the iron is hot.

Boyish good looks

, once his rival for the left-wing crown, is — and he has eyed his best chance for winning the leadership.

Of course, if Burnham does secure that victory, we can all enjoy a chuckle at the Labour Party, so obsessed with “diversity and inclusion” for every other job, electing yet another straight white man as their own leader.

Angela Rayner, once Burnham’s rival for the left-wing crown, is out of the picture There are also wider questions over Burnham’s ability to take on the threat posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform Party

Andy Burnham is offering a life raft to desperate Labour MPs, while his left-wing policies will be lapped up by the party membership keen to see socialism in action after 14 years of Tory government.

But is that really what most voters want? The growing support for Reform suggests not.

So would Andy Burnham be any better as a Labour Prime Minister than the current incumbent?

His media savviness and boyish good looks are all very well, but he will face exactly the same in-tray of problems as Keir Starmer does every Monday morning.

The Mayor of Manchester could well succeed in his coup to seize the Labour crown, only to find that it is a crown of thorns and that the blood in the water is now his.