Outgoing PM Starmer and presumed new Labour leader Burnham – Wiki CommonsIs Starmer purposely sabotaging his ‘assassin’?Yesterday (22), as he announced his resignation in front of the Number 10 Downing Street residence, outgoing premier Keir Starmer said that he would bow to pressure from Labour MPs ‘with good grace’.But today, reports are piling up, suggesting his behavior is anything but gracious.To begin with, ironically, the Andy Burnham team is mad at Starmer for resigning too fast.Daily Mail columnist Dan Hodges put it like that: “Team Burnham’s fury at Starmer for refusing to stay on until September. ‘Andy’s not going to be close to being ready to be Prime Minister.’”Can’t believe I missed this.How the HELL can the BBC justify spending licence fee payers’ money on a helicopter to follow a sodding train that Andy Burnham in on?This is blatant propaganda.Outrageous. pic.twitter.com/JClXHbSUoP— Lee Harris (@LeeHarris) June 23, 2026Burnham arrives at Parliament to be sworn in and already facing screams of “traitor”.pic.twitter.com/r7QOMVQRz4— Tommy Robinson (@TRobinsonNewEra) June 22, 2026The same Daily Mail later published a full report by Hodges on this:“As one Starmer ally told me: ‘He’s not going to sit in No 10 twiddling his thumbs while Burnham gets his robes measured for a coronation. If the party wants him to keep the ship steady through an [internal] election, fine. But if not, he won’t be hanging around.’Within Labour’s deeply divided ranks, there are two interpretations of Starmer’s decision. To his supporters – and even several of his erstwhile opponents – this is the legitimate response of a man who has just been brutally driven from office and can’t be expected to have his assassin’s best interests at heart.As one Starmer ally told me: ‘Andy’s team were desperate for him to wait until September to hand over. They wanted time to properly prepare. Well, tough. You asked for this. You’ve spent the past month telling everyone, ‘That’s politics: You don’t get to choose when you enter or leave the stage’. Fine. Stop crying, suck it up, and get on with it.’Within Team Burnham, there is a view that Starmer is guilty of deliberate sabotage. ‘He’s tried to kneecap us before we’ve even started,’ one told me last night. ‘He could have waited till the [September’s party] conference, and we could have had a respectful handover. But he’s decided just to walk away’.”Team Burnham pressed Keir Starmer to stay on over the summer to give their man time to prepare for power. Starmer rebuffed them in no uncertain manner: you’re forcing me out because you think I’m useless. So why should I wait til September at your convenience?As I said on…— Andrew Neil (@afneil) June 23, 2026But that is not the only point of conflict between the two camps. The Defense budget is also causing a lot attrition.Burnham allies want Starmer to ‘keep his hands off’ the DIP.The Telegraph reported:“Sir Keir Starmer has refused to delay the publication of his defense budget any further, despite allies of Andy Burnham saying he has no right to go ahead with it.The outgoing Prime Minister is planning to unveil his defense investment plan (DIP) in time for the Nato summit in Turkey on July 7. However, he is expected to be replaced by Mr. Burnham as soon as July 17 in what is expected to be a short transition of power.Downing Street has insisted that Sir Keir would finalize the DIP – which has been at the center of a major row at the heart of Government – in the next fortnight. Allies of Mr. Burnham argued that Sir Keir should not be able to make such long-term spending commitments just weeks before he is likely to leave Downing Street. They said the gravity of the situation demanded that Mr, Burnham – assuming he replaces Sir Keir – made all final decisions regarding the DIP, which would outline British military spending for the next decade.”Read more:BREAKING: Failing Keir Starmer Resigns as British Prime Minister – Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham Expected To Be His Successor (VIDEOS)/*! This file is auto-generated */!function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i