Starmer hits back at Burnham as Labour warfare breaks into open

Labour's internal warfare has broken into the open as Keir Starmer and several cabinet ministers criticised Andy Burnham over his comments dismissing the bond markets.

- Jessica Elgot Eleni Courea Hannah Al-Othman

Senior Labour figures yesterday compared the Greater Manchester mayor's attitude to the cavalier approach taken by the former Conservative prime minister Liz Truss in a sign of how low relations between No 10 and Burnham have plunged.

Starmer is understood to be furious at Burnham's admission, in a number of interviews, that he would seek to challenge the prime minister for the leadership if there was a path to do so.

Cabinet ministers explicitly criti-cised comments from Burnham in a New Statesman interview published on Wednesday in which he attacked the economic approach of the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. “We've got to get beyond this thing of being in hock to the bond markets,” he said.

The remarks have incensed those in government. “If you don't want to be in hock to the bond markets, don't announce plans that involve billions of borrowing,” one senior source said.

The deputy leadership candidate Bridget Phillipson said openly that working people had already suffered from a “reckless approach on the economy” from Truss.