What to know about the political chaos engulfing the UK's Labour Party and efforts to unseat Starmer

LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Keir Starmer tried to strengthen his grip on office Monday, saying he was getting on with the job after taking blame for the Labour Party’s disastrous election results that have put his leadership in jeopardy.

Starmer sounded like he was giving a campaign speech but his audience was made up of workers at Labour’s headquarters. He thanked them for their hard work despite the party's losses in the May 7 local and regional elections.

“The election results were not the ones that we wanted, they were really tough. But you worked your socks off,” Starmer said. “It’s not been easy circumstances in the last 10 days.”

Indeed, the last two weeks have been bruising for Starmer, who led the party to a landslide victory two years ago. Dozens of party members have called for him to resign and former allies are plotting how to oust him.

One senior Labour lawmaker, Wes Streeting, resigned as health secretary last week and announced he will stand in a Labour leadership contest with Starmer if one is triggered.

Another would-be rival, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, has been cleared to stand in a special parliamentary election expected within weeks. If he wins, Burnham could join the leadership race and pose a serious threat to Starmer.

Starmer pledged his full support Monday for “whoever” runs for the open seat for Labour, but said he would not resign if Burnham wins.

A looming local election with huge consequences

The question of who could succeed Starmer as Britain's next prime minister could be decided by some 76,000 voters in a small election in northwest England.

All eyes are on Makerfield, near Manchester, where Burnham is expected to run.

Until this week, the popular mayor wasn't eligible to challenge Starmer because he is not a House of Commons lawmaker.

That changed after Josh Simons, the Labour lawmaker holding that seat, stepped down to make way for Burnham.

Burnham has said he will run for Parliament in the Makerfield special election. He said that if he wins that seat, he will take his work representing voters in northern England to the national level and turn Labour's fortunes around.

“If I get to stand, a vote for me will be a vote to change Labour, because Labour needs to change if we are to regain people’s trust,” he said in a speech Monday. “I know what my party has offered in the past has simply not been good enough.”

British media report that the Makerfield election could be held on June 18.

Applications for Labour’s candidacy close on Monday, and the party’s ruling body will endorse a candidate on Thursday.

Brexit rears its head again

While hugely popular and an experienced Labour politician, the 56-year-old Burnham is by no means certain to win the seat.

The constituency was long a safe Labour seat, but like many parts of the U.K. it has seen growing numbers of voters turn to the anti-immigrant, EU-skeptic Reform UK party.

Many voters in Makerfield backed leaving the EU in the Brexit referendum a decade ago. In recent local elections, Reform won all the wards in the constituency and secured around half the vote.

Burnham’s position is made tougher after Streeting, the other leading rival to unseat Starmer, on Saturday described Brexit as a “catastrophic mistake” and said the U.K. should one day rejoin the EU.

Streeting’s speech was widely seen as a direct challenge to Burnham, who has previously expressed support for eventually rejoining the EU but must tread a fine line if he wants to win in Makerfield.

Reform is likely to focus on immigration in the upcoming special election, and its leader Nigel Farage, who played a key role in campaigning for Brexit, wasted no time in attacking Burnham. Writing in the Daily Express Monday, Farage said Burnham “wants to drag you closer to the EU.”

Burnham tried to shut that down, saying: “The last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.”

Labour turmoil prevents it from capitalizing on rival party stumbles

News of Starmer's troubles overshadowed the woes of his rivals on the right and left.

A parliamentary watchdog last week opened an investigation into whether Farage failed to report a 5 million pound ($6.7 million) gift from a donor.

Farage has said the money from Thailand-based cryptocurrency investor Christopher Harborne came before he ran for Parliament, was not related to politics and was for his personal security. He later told the Sun tabloid the gift was for campaigning for Brexit.

Sky News reported that Farage bought a 1.4 million pound ($1.9 million) house after receiving the money. But Farage said he bought the house with money earned from being on the reality show, “I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!”

Meanwhile, the leader of the Green Party, which has also siphoned a share of Labour's vote, admitted he didn't vote in the recent local elections.

Zack Polanski was moving at the time and ran out of time to register at a new address, a party spokesperson said.

Polanski is also facing scrutiny for not paying taxes on a houseboat where he had lived in east London.

He has also admitted he wrongly claimed to be a spokesman for the British Red Cross during a 2022 campaign to be the deputy party leader.