STOP Wes Streeting, left MPs were urging today as fears grew that the Blairite Health Secretary is poised to stage a takeover from Sir Keir Starmer in Downing Street.

As the mood grew across Labour that Sir Keir’s premiership is holed below the water line after catastrophic election results last week, many on the left of the parliamentary party believe that only Mr Streeting can gain from a snap leadership election.

They are instead joining MPs from across the party in pushing for the Prime Minister to set out a timetable for his departure from Downing Street, which would allow Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham time to return to the Commons and then take over the party leadership.

The prospect of an early contest grew at the weekend after former minister Catharine West announced a quixotic challenge.

She said that if the cabinet did not act to ease Sir Keir out she would seek to trigger an election, although she conceded that presently she has the backing of only 10 of the 81 MPs which the rules require.

“What I’d like the cabinet to do is to reflect on the result from Thursday, where the voters sent us a very strong message that we are not good enough,” she said, and set out a timetable for a change at the top.

However, most left MPs contacted by the Star believe that Mr Streeting, the standard-bearer of the party’s right, would be most likely to gain from such a contest.

They regard former deputy premier Angela Rayner, the other likely contestant, as compromised by her long support for Sir Keir, among other issues.

And they also believe that only Mr Burnham, whose polling figures are miles ahead of any rivals, will be able to prevent the election of a hard-right Reform-led government at the next general election.

However they concede, in the words of one, that the path to a Burnham leadership “is a narrow one,” involving him finding a suitable by-election, being allowed by Sir Keir to stand in it, and then winning against an anti-Labour tide.

Ms Rayner, for her part, would also welcome a return by Mr Burnham. She will not seek to trigger a challenge to Sir Keir, but would enter one to prevent a coronation for Mr Streeting.

Ms Rayner called for the return of Mr Burnham to parliament in a statement: “it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for - that means bringing our best players into Parliament - and embracing the type of agenda that has been successful at a local level, rather than reaching back to an agenda and politics that has failed people.”

“What we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change. This may be our last chance.

“We are in danger of becoming a party of the well-off, not working people. The Peter Mandelson scandal showed a toxic culture of cronyism. Decisions like cutting winter fuel allowance just weren’t what people expected from a Labour government. For too long, successive governments have allowed wealth and power to concentrate at the top without a plan to ensure the benefits of economic growth are shared fairly,” she added.

Others still on the left are looking to Energy Secretary Ed Miliband as an improbable saviour, but he has repeatedly ruled out a second turn as Labour leader.

Socialist Campaign Group secretary Richard Burgon said he understood Ms West’s frustrations, and noted he too had called for Sir Keir to go but added: “I fear there’s a real danger that, whatever her good intentions, her move will be exploited by people on the right of the party who want a coronation and not a proper democratic contest.

“What we need instead is for Keir to set a date for his departure, followed by a full and proper democratic contest that can look at what went wrong and how we change course to win back trust and support, with a broad range of candidates and viewpoints represented.”

Labour MP John McDonnell said of Ms West’s candidacy: “I worry some in shadows want to exploit her concerns and bounce us before we have a proper democratic process.”

There are other left MPs, however, who believe they should stand their own candidate in any contest, even if they would not get on the ballot paper under rules drawn up under Sir Keir designed to prevent such an eventuality.

Such a candidate would, they argue, allow for a proper campaign for the major policy changes the government requires.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham told the BBC that she was “very sure” Sir Keir would not lead Labour into the next general election and wanted an orderly transition to a new leader.

She added that the party was at risk of becoming “extinct” as it had “abandoned the working class, and the working class then chose to abandon Labour.”

Labour’s right is also turning on the hapless Prime Minister. Former Labour Together director Josh Simons, forced to resign as a minister after his hiring of investigators to snoop on investigative journalists probing the group’s malfeasance was exposed, joined calls for Sir Keir to quit.

He wrote in the Times: “I do not believe the Prime Minister can rise to this moment.

“He has lost the country. He should take control of the situation by overseeing an orderly transition to a new prime minister.”

Mr Simons accused Labour of “deferring to elite interests and stakeholders,” hitherto Labour Together’s preferred programme.

Some regard him as a stalking horse for the Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood, another possible leadership contender. Another veteran of the right, former home secretary David Blunkett, also declined to back the premier continuing in office.

Sir Keir is still planning to hold on as the house collapses around him. He will fight back with a speech tomorrow urging closer links to the European Union.

Bizarrely, he tried to relaunch his premiership at the weekend by bringing back Blair-era stalwarts Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman in advisory roles, a retro move unlikely to help.

Unison general secretary Andrea Egan warned that “the prospect of Labour being extinguished as a major political force spells disaster.”

Writing in the Guardian she said: “The Greens under Zack Polanski have gained so much support because they are defending the progressive values Starmer has abandoned.

“But as things stand, we must be clear that the most probable consequence of Labour’s collapse is likely to be a Reform government. One that will seek to reduce union and worker rights while deporting our friends and neighbours.”