Wes Starmer has urged Keir Starmer to set the date of his departure from Downing Street on Friday morning in the wake of the Makerfield by-election result.
The would-be prime minister also said he had “no doubt” there would be a Labour leadership contest, even if Sir Keir refused to go, as he insisted he had the support of the 80-odd MPs necessary to be on the ballot paper.
Mr Streeting said he hopes Andy Burnham, another leading rival to replace Sir Keir, wins the by-election, allowing him to return to Parliament and challenge the Labour leader.
He added: “I would hope that after Thursday’s by-election, when the results are in… I hope the prime minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable.
“I think that would be a better way forward for everyone.”
His call came as he made a speech in central London setting out his pitch to be PM, in which he ruled out an early general election, backed the triple lock on pensions and praised a former Tory chancellor.
But the PM insisted that he would prove his rivals wrong and “carry on with what I was elected to do”.
Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Sir Keir also said he would “bring back the change that people desperately need” after the by-election.
Mr Streeting has faced questions about the level of his support among MPs since he failed to trigger a contest when he resigned from Sir Keir’s cabinet last month.
He insisted he had wanted to wait for the by-election result as “one of the inevitable candidates is on the ballot paper. And had I tried to pull a fast one and get ahead of Andy Burnham before he came back, I think that would have been foul play.”
Pushed on whether he would trigger a contest after the Makerfield result, he said he had “no doubt” that a leadership election would happen.
And he said that Sir Keir’s legacy would be as the leader that “saved the Labour Party from oblivion” after the Jeremy Corbyn years.
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