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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is weighing up the current “political realities” amid reports that he is set to step down next week, the UK’s business secretary has said.
Speaking with the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday, Peter Kyle said Starmer was “taking the time to think through what the political realities are today compared to last week”.
“We will find a way for this to be, whatever unfolds, a functional process,” Kyle added.
The Observer reported on Saturday that Starmer is expected to announce his resignation on Monday while laying out a timetable for his exit.
The Labour leader has repeatedly vowed to fight on in his role but has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks following calamitous local election results for his party in May.
He has also faced mounting calls to step down in the wake of Andy Burnham’s victory in the crucial Makerfield by-election earlier this week.
Burnham, who previously served as the MP for Leigh from 2001 to 2017 before becoming mayor of Manchester, is regarded by many Labour members as the party’s best chance of recovery and of beating off the growing challenge posed by Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.
In what was predicted to be a close-run vote in Makerfield, Burnham ended up cruising to victory, securing 24,927 votes, around 55% of the vote. Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon came second with 15,696, followed by Restore Britain’s Rebecca Shepherd with 3,111.
Burnham and former UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting have said they would stand in any leadership race to replace Starmer.
In his victory speech, Burnham warned the Labour Party that it had a “final chance to change”.
“There will be no second chance,” he said. “It is a chance now from this result tonight to build a new politics based on unity and hope, turning away from the path that takes us to a divided, dark politics of the kind we see in the United States”.
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