King of the north

With Starmer on the ropes, many in Labour are looking to Andy Burnham to step up

- Jessica Elgot and Pippa Crerar

When Andy Burnham addressed a gala dinner this week, he was as coy as he could have been in a week when speculation about his future ambitions were in overdrive. "I love this job," the mayor of Greater Manchester said. "I am very happy where I am. I have no ambition to be ... ambassador to Washington.

It was a gag that got a big laugh. Burnham has never played the game of pretending that he doesn’t seek to enter No 10. But he also does not give the standard ambitious politician’s response of saying that no vacancy is available. Instead, he takes a more honest approach: that he would not have run twice to be leader of the Labour party if he didn’t want the job. Over the years, he has left Keir Starmer in no doubt that he hopes to one day to succeed him.

But no one thought the question would come this soon. Starmer’s government has plunged in popularity, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK is on the rise, a huge Commons rebellion on welfare has weakened the prime minister - and three scandals in a fortnight have brought the departure of a deputy leader and ambassador. More and more MPs have begun to believe their salvation lies north. They range from socialist MPs who admired Burnham’s anti-factionalism, to centrist new-intake MPs who see what he has done for growth in Greater Manchester. “His politics are now firmly at the progressive heart of the Labour party,” one Labour insider said.

His closest friend in politics these days, the mayor of Liverpool city region, Steve Rotheram, says the past seven years have been the making of Burnham.

"I've known him for 18 years. I saw the way he started to shape politics once he left Westminster," he said.