Look away now Wes Streeting.
Bombshell new polling of Labour members has revealed which contenders would beat Keir Starmer in a leadership contest.
This week there has been rampant speculation that Keir Starmer will face a leadership challenge. It started on Monday and Tuesday as dozens of Labour MPs called for the prime minister to resign or set out a timetable for his departure.
Then, things ramped up a gear on Thursday as the man considered one of the main challengers to the leadership, Wes Streeting, resigned as health secretary.
In a letter to Starmer, he said he had “lost confidence” in his leadership and called for a “broad debate” about what comes next for Labour.
Whilst Streeting did not explicitly say he wants to stand in a leadership contest, his resignation and letter has effectively fired the starting gun on one.
Along with Streeting, Angela Rayner and Andy Burnham have also long been touted as potential challengers to Starmer’s leadership, with Ed Miliband and Al Carnes even emerging as contenders in recent days.
Should a leadership contest take place, it will come down to Labour members to decide who wins the election. They will vote in a postal ballot in which they rank the candidates in order of preference.
Now, new polling of Labour members has revealed how each main contender would do against Starmer, who will automatically be on the ballot should he want to fight the contest, something Number 10 has said he would do.
Polling from Labour List has shown that Streeting would likely lose to Starmer – and it wouldn’t even be close.
In a straight choice between the two men, 53% of Labour members said they would vote for Starmer whilst just 23% said they would choose Streeting.
The numbers aren’t so positive for the PM when it comes to other match-ups though.
Starmer would lose by a wide margin to Burnham (61% to 28%) and would come on the wrong end of contests against Rayner (45% to 42%) and Miliband (46% to 39%).
It is likely to take a while before the Labour leadership drama sorts itself out. In his resignation letter, Streeting did not call for a quick contest, instead writing that it should have “the best possible field of candidates.”
This suggests he may be willing to wait for Burnham to secure a route back into Westminster through a by-election before sparking a contest that could then include the Manchester mayor.
Any would-be contenders will need the written support of 20% of Labour MPs, which at the moment is 81.
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