Keir Starmer dealt huge poll blow as Labour members back Andy Burnham

Andy Burnham would beat Sir Keir Starmer among Labour members if there was a leadership contest, new polling shows. The survey of 704 party members found that 62% would back the Greater Manchester Mayor, while 29% support the Prime Minister.

Some 9% said they did not know or would not vote in the YouGov poll for Sky News carried out a week ago. It comes as Labour's annual conference in Liverpool has been dominated by questions about Sir Keir's future and whether Mr Burnham could seek to topple him as party leader following a series of vocal interventions by the Greater Manchester Mayor.

The poll also found that 33% said Sir Keir is doing a bad job, while 63% said he is doing a good job.

Just over a third - 37% said he should not lead Labour into the next general election, with 53% saying he should and 10% unsure.

Mr Burnham is the favourite to succeed Sir Keir with 54% of respondents backing him.

Angela Rayner, who quit as deputy prime minister earlier this month in a row over her tax affairs, is second with 10%.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is third with 7%, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband and Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper are on 6%, and new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is on 2%.

It comes as Mr Burnham left the door open to a future leadership bid when he spoke at a fringe event at the Labour gathering today.

He said "you would have to wrench" him out of the northwest but refused to rule out the prospect of leaving his mayoralty before the end of the term.