Barely a poll bounce for Labour after Keir Starmer quits and Andy Burnham closes in on becoming PM

By GREG HEFFER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT Published: 10:31, 30 June 2026 | Updated: 10:32, 30 June 2026 Labour has barely registered a polling bounce after Keir Starmer quit and while Andy Burnham closes in on becoming his successor as Prime Minister. The latest YouGov survey shows Labour's support up two percentage points to 20 per cent since Sir Keir announced he will stand down. But this is within the margin of error of last week's poll and Labour still trails Reform UK by four points. Nigel Farage's party are on 24 per cent in the latest poll - down one point from the previous survey. The Tories are unchanged on 20 per cent in this week's poll, with the Greens (down two points) and the Liberal Democrats (down one point) both on 13 per cent. It is the lowest figure recorded for the Greens since last October and is down eight points from their peak in early March, which came shortly after Zack Polanski's party won the Gorton and Denton by-election. The 40 per cent of voters who said they would back either Labour or the Tories is the highest combined vote share for Britain's traditional two main parties since last July. Sir Keir announced he will resign as PM in a tearful speech last Monday following Mr Burnham's victory in the Makerfield by-election. Your browser does not support iframes. Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, is now almost certain to replace Keir Starmer in Downing Street in the absence of any other Labour leadership contenders Mr Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, is now almost certain to replace Sir Keir in Downing Street in the absence of any other Labour leadership contenders. He is set to become PM on 20 July if he remains the only candidate to replace Sir Keir as Labour leader. Yesterday, in his first major speech since Sir Keir announced he will step down, Mr Burnham vowed to set up a new No10 operation in Manchester to be the 'nerve centre of a rewired Britain'. He also promised to oversee the 'biggest council house building programme since the post war period' and to allow regions to take 'greater public control of essential services' including water, energy and transport. The proposals would bring about the 'biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen', Mr Burnham said as he promised to overcome Whitehall's resistance to change. 'Let me say this very directly: the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over for good,' he added. In an attempt to reassure the markets that he would not hike borrowing and taxes to pay for his plans, Mr Burnham promised his measures would be based on 'the stability that comes from sound public finances' and 'the discipline of our current fiscal rules'. But he acknowledged that taxpayer-funded support would be needed to deal with the cost-of-living pressures facing households.  YouGov surveyed 2,437 British adults between 28 and 29 June. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.