The phone calls started before dawn. Labour backbenchers, usually bound by party discipline and the understanding that public dissent can end a political career, were breaking ranks with unusual ferocity. By Sunday evening, roughly 80 of them — enough to trigger a formal leadership challenge — had quietly signed a private letter of condemnation. The reason was simple, brutal and entirely self-inflicted: Keir Starmer had blocked Andy Burnham from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, and his own party was furious.
What began as an attempt to control a dangerous rival had metamorphosed, within hours, into a full-blown mutiny that threatens the Prime Minister's grip on power. The irony would be almost comedic if the stakes weren't so high.
