SIR Keir Starmer yesterday brushed off leadership posturing by rival Andy Burnham as “part and parcel” of politics.
The PM insisted there’s nothing new about party chiefs being threatened from within their own ranks.
Andy Burnham has slammed Keir Starmer for running Labour with a ‘climate of fear’[/caption]
Embattled Starmer insisted there’s nothing new about party leaders being threatened from within their own ranks[/caption]
Pressed on manoeuvres by the Manchester Mayor, Sir Keir told the BBC: “Comments about leaders and leadership are part and parcel of being in politics.
“It is the bread and butter of politics.”
The PM added: “Every leader gets it. It’s in the job description.
“I don’t focus on that.
“I focus on what we’ve got to get done.”
In a thinly-veiled leadership pitch, Mr Burnham has attacked the Government’s lack of direction and said MPs have urged him to challenge for the top job.
In a bid to re-establish his authority, Sir Keir said he will be “rightly judged” – but only at the end of the five-year mandate he was elected on.
Directly addressing his critics, the PM said: “We have got the fight of our lives ahead of us, because we have got to beat Reform.”
Yesterday, Burnham was branded a “political weather vane” by colleagues for flip flopping on his economic views.
Manchester’s mayor spooked investors with a leftie call to end UK dependence on foreign lenders this week.
“We’ve got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond market,” he said amid speculation he is desperate for a Westminster return.
But in recently resurfaced videos when he ran as Labour leader ten years ago he said they must show “strong and stable finances”.
He blamed Labour’s 2015 election defeat on their loss of “economic credibility”.
And said they must show they can run “strong and stable” public finances.
