Sir Keir Starmer has insisted he is getting on with the business of governing the UK as he faces the greatest challenge to his leadership since taking office.
The prime minister is facing mounting pressure to stand down as ministers resign and dozens of Labour MPs call on him to quit.
As his woes deepen by the hour, one of the reasons he is still in place is that the path to No 10 will not be an easy one for any of his would-be challengers.
From links to disgraced former Labour grandee Peter Mandelson to tax scandals, here we look at the potential difficulties each of the main contenders faces.
Wes Streeting
All eyes are now on the health secretary, thought to be the cabinet minister most likely to replace Sir Keir.
He has never been shy about his ambition to become PM and he is understood to have the backing of enough Labour MPs to launch a leadership bid, having recruited more than 81 MPs – the minimum required to trigger a leadership election.
But launching a leadership challenge now could haunt him politically. Rishi Sunak’s resignation hastened Boris Johnson’s departure from No 10, but, although he became PM, Mr Sunak never quite escaped the reputation as the man who backstabbed his boss, and he faced accusations he was a traitor from Tory voters.
While he is keen to avoid that fate, it is far from the only problem Mr Streeting faces.
There is also his relationship with the disgraced Labour grandee Peter Mandelson. The health secretary was forced to publish texts between the pair earlier this year, as the Mandelson scandal engulfed the government. Mr Streeting insists they were not close friends.
Writing about the texts, he said that “contrary to what has been widely reported, I was not a close friend of Peter Mandelson, but I am not going to wash my hands of my actual association with him either”.
Sir Keir was reportedly alerted to Mr Streeting’s intentions when a Downing Street staff member accidentally texted details of his bid, including the “five pillars” of his campaign and his “PFG”, meaning plan for government.
He is a charismatic cabinet minister who is able to connect with the public. But his public popularity ratings are low, with only 13 per cent of voters thinking he’d do a better job than Sir Keir.
But his position in the centre right of the party could also prove a stumbling block to his ambitions. The next leader will not be chosen by the public but by Labour members, widely regarded as more leftwing that the general population.
Andy Burnham
The so-called “King of the North” is popular among Labour MPs, party members and the general public. But he faces a major obstacle: he has no seat in Westminster.
Sir Keir infamously blocked a potential return earlier this year, barring him from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Since then, there have been rumours among his allies of potential seats where he could stand. But he suffered a blow on Tuesday when the current occupant of one of those seats, Marie Rimmer, a St Helens MP, said she was going nowhere – adding she had not spoken to Mr Burnham in years.
There is also the problem of whether he would be able to stand if he did find a by-election. Most of the party’s powerful ruling body, the National Executive Council (NEC), voted with Sir Keir to prevent Mr Burnham standing.
If he were elected MP, he would have to quit his role as mayor of Greater Manchester – triggering an election Labour fears it could lose amid the rise of Reform and the Greens.
Allies say he has a plan to return as an MP, and his team is reported to have lined up an “impressive” candidate to replace him as mayor, potentially the reason to block him.
But even if all these hurdles were cleared, he faces a tough challenge to win any seat at the moment. And the other parties, especially the Greens and Reform, would pile everything into a by-election to stop him.
Angela Rayner
Rumours about Angela Rayner’s ambitions have been circling since she was forced to resign from Sir Keir’s cabinet last September, after it emerged that she had underpaid stamp duty on her Brighton flat. That row could still prevent her from entering No 10.
Popular among MPs, who see her as a shrewd political operator, Ms Rayner is also on the soft left of the party and seen as more likely to get the votes of the party’s membership.
Earlier this year, in what was widely seen as her clearest challenge to Sir Keir, she warned Labour was “running out of time” to deliver change and could not “go through the motions in the face of decline”.
There were rumours of a joint bid with Mr Burnham after she met with the Greater Manchester mayor. That could boost her popularity, which has suffered since the tax scandal, with only 15 per cent of voters believing she’d do a better job than Sir Keir.
But ultimately, it is her tax affairs which could be the biggest stumbling block for the former deputy PM. The scandal broke last summer, but it is understood that it has not yet been settled.
Even if the eventual bill is resolved quickly, some in the party think it means she cannot stand.
One Labour peer recently told The Independent: “Labour cannot have a party leader who did not pay the correct tax – at the same time as it is putting up people’s taxes”.
