Andy Burnham locked up 322 Labour nominations to succeed Starmer
What's next: If no rival reaches 81 MP signatures by July 16, Burnham can take over as party leader and prime minister within days.
Andy Burnham moved sharply toward becoming Britain’s next prime minister after 322 Labour MPs formally backed his bid to replace Keir Starmer as party leader. Burnham, 56, was the only Labour lawmaker to publicly enter the race on July 9, leaving potential rivals with little room to gather the 81 nominations needed by the July 16 deadline. If no challenger qualifies, Labour plans to install him at a special conference the next day, before he replaces Starmer at 10 Downing Street after meeting King Charles III on July 20. Burnham, a former cabinet minister and three-term mayor of Greater Manchester, has pitched a shift of power away from Westminster and promised tighter control of public finances.