The clock is ticking: Burnham allies give Starmer 72 hours to stand down or face full-blown coup

Some supporters close to the outgoing Manchester mayor want Sir Keir to quit by Monday, sources told the Daily Mail.

It comes after Mr Burnham secured a 9,231 majority and a 54.8 per cent share of the vote in the Makerfield by-election, piling mounting pressure on a beleaguered PM whose future now hangs in the balance.

But other allies of Mr Burnham are reportedly not seeking an immediate transfer of power. They reportedly want time to prepare for governing in the event that he succeeds in ousting Sir Keir.

Instead, they want the PM to set out a timetable to depart in September, with some believing the mayoral race would be harder for the party to win with no prospect of a change in leader.

The PM is now weighing up his future as pressure mounts.

Former Transport Secretary Lousie Haigh, a close ally of Mr Bunrham, said: "I hope the Prime Minister takes the weekend to really reflect on the result here – listen to soundings from the cabinet and the PLP (Parliamentary Labour Party), because all the evidence suggests that a contest will be brutal, it will be unpleasant and it will be very unlikely that the Prime Minister is going to win at the end of it."

Asked if Team Burnham had a "campaign ready to go", she replied "yes", adding: "We really hope that this can be a managed and orderly transition and Keir Starmer will reflect on the results, and Andy and Keir can meet in the coming days, and over the next week, and agree a path forward."

Read more: Glum-looking Starmer insists he 'will stand' in any Labour leadership contest as Burnham poised to launch challenge

Read more: Andy Burnham sets his sights on Downing Street after seismic victory in Makerfield by-election

Sir Keir will reportedly take the weekend to mull over his decision despite publicly vowing not to “walk away”, The Times reports.

But ministers are set to tell Sir Keir his “time is up” and urge him to set out a timeline for an “orderly transition” of power.

Several have already confirmed they will tell the PM to quit to make way for Mr Burham, who said Labour had a “final chance to change” after his decisive win in Makerfield set up a showdown with the PM.

But Sir Keir has vowed to fight any potential leadership challenge if a contest is triggered, telling reporters he won’t simply “walk away”.

However,  Mr Burnham’s allies have told Sir Keir to do the opposite and step aside for the newly-elected Makerfield MP.

“Andy Burnham has exceeded all expectations and I'm absolutely sure that there'll be an orderly transition of leadership now. Keir would be unwise to try and stop it,” one ally told the Daily Mail.

York MP Rachael Maskell said Sir Keir should immediately stand down.

"I personally don't believe that capitalism is progressive so I think the basis of his analysis is wrong,' she told a broadcaster. 

"But what we need to see, as Andy Burnham has been talking about, more national ownership of things like our water which has been devastating in the way that it's been run over the last 30-plus years, in the way that water has been privatised and ultimately has had a real impact on the state of our rivers but also flooding and drought,” she added.

The Unite union, a major Labour donor, called for Sir Keir to lay out a timetable for his departure as it backed Mr Burnham for the leadership.

Its general secretary, Sharon Graham, said: “The win for Andy Burnham in Makerfield is a glimmer of hope but it must not be taken as a business as usual mandate.

“It is clear that there now needs to be an orderly timetable for a leadership election and Keir Starmer must do the right thing and step down. The inevitable leadership election must be fought on real change and policies. Not personalities or better speeches.”

A Labour aide told the Mail Sir Keir should leave today, instead of waiting till Monday as some of his allies have suggested. 

“Why wait until Monday, just for another weekend at Chequers,” they said.

Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy said she wanted Mr Burnham “back at the top table”.

The Culture Secretary said: “What Andy’s shown here is that there is something that he brings, a willingness to go out and fight for the change that people need, to take on any system and any person who stands in the way and to be bold and to wear his heart on his sleeve, and people have responded.

“I think that with him back in the top team, at the top table, helping to drive that change, I think we’ll be in a really strong position.”

Labour MP John McDonnell got emotional on LBC as he watched Burnham win by over 10,000 votes.

He said: "I think the whole Labour Party would have been lifted by this, because it shows we can not just defeat reform, we can trounce them."Starmer ally Steve Reed, who is Secretary of State for Housing, told LBC he is really delighted” that Mr Burnham won the by-election in “such spectacular fashion.”

He told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast: "I was up there on Wednesday. I was knocking on doors. I could feel the energy and that people were saying they were going to come out and vote Labour. That doesn't always happen, and they did, and I'm really, really pleased about that."

When asked whether it was a difficult time being a Starmer supporter, he said: "No, it isn't, because I've got a job of work to do."

In a speech this morning, Mr Burnham said it was time to re-industrialise Britain, bring down bills and bring some services back into public control.

He urged his party to act now, saying there would be no second chance.

Mr Burnham said: “Everyone knows that politics isn’t working.“Everyone can feel that the country isn’t where it should be. Tonight could, just could, be the turning point.”

In a direct message to Labour MPs he said: “I do say to my own party: this is a final chance to change.

“This is what people said directly to me on the hundreds of doorsteps that I stood on. We must hear it, we must act upon it and we must get it right. There will be no second chance.”

Mr Burnham defeated Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon by 9,231 votes, up from 5,399 in 2024, and Labour’s vote share increased by 9.61%.

Reform UK, who made sweeping gains in the area at May’s local elections, and the Greens, who won the Gorton and Denton by-election in February, will both be hoping to win over voters in the traditional Labour stronghold.

Mr Burnham gave up the Greater Manchester mayoralty by becoming Makerfield MP, winning the seat that was vacated by Josh Simons in order to allow him the chance of returning to Westminster and seek to become prime minister.