# Burnham Surges as Starmer Sinks: Labour Leadership War Explodes Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explodes Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explodes.md Podcast: [Afternoon Empire with Ian Collins](https://stenobird.com/podcast/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640) Published: 2026-05-19T16:34:33+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/georgegallowaytalkshow/episodes/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explod Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/georgegallowaytalkshow/e/6a0c74cdb23d275dce9ca849/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640/episodes/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explodes Duration seconds: 1646 ## Resource Is Andy Burnham now the favourite to replace Keir Starmer? New polling suggests Andy Burnham would comfortably beat Keir Starmer in a Labour leadership contest, while support for Wes Streeting among Labour members appears to have collapsed. YouGov’s Patrick English breaks down the numbers behind Burnham’s surge, what Labour voters really think about Starmer’s leadership, and why Streeting’s leadership ambitions may already be fading. Meanwhile, Times political correspondent Max Kendix reacts to claims Burnham is becoming the “King of the U-turns” after rowing back on EU rejoin comments and signalling support for Rachel Reeves’ borrowing rules. Former Foreign Office adviser Ben Judah joins to discuss the escalating Brexit row inside Labour, after allies of Burnham accused Starmer’s camp of trying to sabotage him over Europe. With warnings that Brussels could demand billions for Britain to rejoin the EU, and Labour figures openly fighting over Brexit strategy, questions are growing over who really leads the party and where it wants to take the country. Burnham vs Starmer, Labour leadership polling, Streeting collapse, Brexit betrayal row, EU rejoin backlash. Is Labour heading for a full leadership war? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640/episodes/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explodes/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/afternoon-empire-with-ian-collins-1131640/burnham-surges-as-starmer-sinks-labour-leadership-war-explodes.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.