By Niva Yadav

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Pressure is mounting on Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership as the Labour Party trails in the polls following a number of scandals.

Former Labour frontbencher Richard Burgon said it was “inevitable” that the Prime Minister would be ousted if local elections in Scotland, Wales and parts of England next May go as badly as current polls predict.

As dissent against the Prime Minister grows within his own circles, questions have been raised about who is in line to replace him.

Recent weeks have seen the departures of US Ambassador Lord Mandelson, who was sacked over his relationship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and deputy leader Angela Rayner, who quit over a tax scandal.

On Monday, Sir Keir’s senior Downing Street aide Paul Ovenden stepped down when “sexually explicit” emails he had written about Labour MP Diane Abbott were unearthed.

The Prime Minister is facing an electoral threat from Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has overtaken Labour in many opinion polls and won a large number of council-by elections since Sir Keir’s landslide general election victory in 2024.

Bookies have Mr Farage favourite to become Britain’s next PM, but a coup could see a new Labour leader occupy Number 10 before the next general election.

Who is in the Labour leadership race should Sir Keir step down as party leader?

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham has already been pegged as a favourite to replace Sir Keir at 8/1 with bookmakers.

According to some in Westminster, he is already laying the groundwork to challenge the current Prime Minister’s leadership.

Mr Burnham would not be legible for party leadership as it stands because he is not a sitting MP and his tenure as mayor is not expected to end until 2028.

But it has been suggested that he is considering stepping down from his local politics role to run in a parliamentary by-election.

Allies of Mr Burnham have called these rumours “pure speculation with no substance.”

However, he is believed to have the backing of Labour’s benefits rebels, who opposed Sir Keir’s welfare reforms. He has already publicly backed Mainstream, a new soft-left Labour network, which has called on the government to introduce wealth taxes, nationalise utility companies and end the two-child benefit cap.

The former cabinet minister is also supporting Lucy Powell, who was sacked as leader of the Commons by Sir Keir earlier this month, in the ongoing Labour deputy leadership contest.

The battle to replace Angela Rayner is between Ms Powell and Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson. Some have described the race a proxy war for the rivalry between Sir Keir and Mr Burnham.

Mr Burnham made a bid for the Labour leadership in 2010, where he came fourth out of five candidates, losing out to Ed Miliband.

Under Mr Miliband’s charge, Mr Burnham served as Shadow Secretary of State for Health and later, Shadow Secretary of State for Education.

He ran a second time for leadership in 2015, but was pipped to the post by Jeremy Corbyn.

The Lancashire-born Mayor has been a strong supporter of devolving power and has regularly called for better investment in the North of England and outside of London.

Wes Streeting is another favourite to replace Sir Keir.

The Health Secretary admitted last month that the Labour party had not done enough to gain public support, but has he stood by Sir Keir during his tenure.

The Ilford North MP was far more critical of Sir Keir’s predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, who he repeatedly butted heads with on issues including Brexit and anti-Semitism.

However, Mr Streeting won a majority of just 528 votes in his east London constituency at the last general election and continues to face an electoral threat from pro-Palestinian independent candidates.

With Mr Streeting now at the helm, the NHS continues to struggle under a significant backlog and waiting lists have risen back up to 7.4 million as of July 2025. That same month, resident doctors took part in another round of strike action over pay and working conditions.

Mr Streeting claimed at a special meeting of the British Medical Association’s representative body on Sunday that he was fixing the damage imposed by the previous Conservative government. He added that the NHS will be failed under Reform UK’s leadership.

Newly appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has a growing number of admirers inside the Labour party. Bookies have her priced at 12/1 to take over.

The former Justice Secretary is the MP for Birmingham Ladywood and is known as one of Labour’s ‘Blue’ or more socially conservative politicians.

In her former post, Ms Mahmood was tasked with tackling overcrowding in prisons and has now been brought in to deal with migration and Channel crossings.

Ms Mahmood has already taken a tough stance, proposing plans to punish countries who delay or refuse to accept returns of their citizens with UK visa suspensions.

She has also touted plans to consider how the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which has been used by some migrants to avoid deportation, is implimented in the UK.

Yvette Cooper was given the post of Foreign Secretary, having previously been Home Secretary, as part of Sir Keir’s government reshuffle.

In her role overseeing the Home Office, Ms Cooper was subject to backlash over the record number of small boats crossing the English Channel.

She suspended new applications for refugees looking to bring their families to the UK in her last move as Home Secretary.

She was also behind the government’s scrapping of the Rwanda plan and crafted a “one in one out” deal with France to return small boat migrants, which is set to commence next week.

The bookies have her at 12/1 to become to next Prime Minister.

Darren Jones is Sir Keir’s Chief Secretary and the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. But he has also been mooted as a potential successor.

The MP for Bristol North West is part of the Blairite faction of the Labour Party and was brought in as part of Starmer’s cabinet reshuffle in 2023.

Mr Jones found himself in hot water earlier this year when he was forced to apologise for comparing benefits to “pocket money”.

He is the first “Darren” to be elected to parliament.

Angela Rayner’s resignation as Deputy PM and Housing Secretary ealier this month derailed Sir Keir’s government “reset” and sparked a major reshuffle.

Revelations that she had underpaid stamp duty when purchasing her £800,000 seaside flat forced her out of the cabinet, but she remains one of the Labour Party’s most prominent figures.

She grew up on a Stockport council estate and became a mother aged just 16. As a carer she joined trade union Unison, rising up the ranks before being selected as the Labour candidate for the Ashton-under-Lyme constituency in 2014.

Firmly on the left of the party, her outspokenness was seen as a useful antidote to the more reserved Sir Keir.

Bookmakers have her at 16/1 to become the next Labour leader.

However, her property tax scandal may have resulted in many Labour members and voters losing trust in the former deputy leader.