LONDON Mayor Sadiq Khan said Andy Burnham had “legitimate concerns” about Sir Keir Starmer’s embattled leadership today.

Mr Burnham, who is the mayor of Greater Manchester, made a thinly veiled pitch to replace Sir Keir as PM with a series of headline-grabbing interventions earlier this week.

The former New Labour minister and ex-MP for Leigh in north-west England accused Downing Street of creating a “climate of fear” as he set out his own vision for how to “turn the country around” in a string of interviews ahead of Labour’s annual conference, which starts this Sunday.

He said that returning to “the old way of doing things in Westminster with minimal change” was an unattractive prospect, but he was ready to “work with anybody who wants to … put in place a plan to turn the country around.”

Speaking on an LBC phone-in show, Sir Sadiq said: “I think Andy’s raising legitimate concerns he has, and you know, he’s entitled to do so.”

Asked by presenter James O’Brien whether Mr Burnham was going further than that and manoeuvring for leadership of the Labour Party, Sir Sadiq said that was “your characterisation,” adding: “I think we’ve got 400 MPs, so it won’t be a surprise to anybody that there may be a small minority not happy with the leadership.

“I’m going to conference next week, and the joy of conference when Labour is in government far outweighs any concerns people may have.”

Sir Keir appeared to attack his potential leadership rival’s economic agenda today, which includes a proposed 50p top rate of income tax and a tax cut for low earners.