LABOUR activists were warned by the party yesterday not to cry on television as it braced for historic election defeats.

The party issued the injunction to members preparing to attend local election counts at which Labour was on course to lose three-quarters of the seats it was defending.

Weeping Labour campaigners being caught on camera as results for the Scottish and Welsh parliaments and local authorities across England roll in today would underline an unavoidably negative narrative for the government.

As Londoners voted yesterday, Labour poured activists into Keir Starmer’s home borough of Camden, where long-standing Labour control of the council was threatened by an alliance of the Greens and the socialist Camden Peoples Alliance.

London mayor Sadiq Khan was among those dragooned into the Prime Minister’s constituency in a bid to spare Keir Starmer’s blushes were he to lose his own backyard.

Hanging on in Camden will still leave Keir Starmer a long way short of out of the woods. Labour MPs are expected to start calling for his departure from Downing Street over the weekend.

Many eyes will be on Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, the only one of the Prime Minister’s putative successors who has a net positive rating with the public – indeed, the only nationally known politician of any party to be viewed positively.

However, Mr Burnham is not an MP, and Keir Starmer has expended some effort in keeping it that way, blocking his candidacy in this year’s Gorton and Denton by-election in Manchester, which Labour subsequently lost to the Greens.

His allies have briefed that he has a plan to return to Westminster through another winnable by-election in the near future and thus be in a position to challenge Keir Starmer later in the year.

The absence of the popular Mr Burnham gives an incentive to the Blairite contender for the succession, Health Secretary Wes Streeting, to force an earlier contest in which his chances of winning would be better.

If he makes a move, he would certainly be opposed by former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner who, however, is understood not to be wishing to provoke an election herself.

It is possible that the results of yesterday’s elections will be so bad as to force the blundering Keir Starmer to at least announce a timetable for stepping down, although Downing Street has briefed that is far from his thoughts.

Mr Burnham is due to give a speech in Manchester today, possibly to outline his views and intentions.

It will be against the backdrop of what is likely to be Labour’s worst-ever local election setback, including a humiliating third place in voting for the Welsh Senedd, a collapse in support in Scotland and losses across the “red wall” of former industrial communities in England.