Henry Zeffman: What does Keir Starmer do next after Andy Burnham's Makerfield win?

Henry Zeffman: What does Keir Starmer do next after Andy Burnham's Makerfield win?7 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleHenry ZeffmanChief political correspondent Reuters"Delusional.""A bit deluded.""Utterly deluded."That's just a flavour of the messages I've been receiving from Labour MPs since Andy Burnham won the Makerfield by-election in the early hours of this morning.To be clear, it's Sir Keir Starmer they're talking about: the man who not even two years ago brought Labour back to the promised land of government after 14 years away, and only five years after Labour's worst ever general election defeat.These MPs span Labour factions, generations and ministerial ranks.But they are united in their view that Sir Keir has entered the endgame.To Sir Keir and his allies, it's those pushing for his exit who are deluded. Their case this morning is that the spectacle of a governing party consumed by internal conflict is exactly what the public voted Labour to end. "When the Tories lost the last election, Britons were most likely to see them as 'only interested in themselves', 'dishonest' and 'divided'," a document being circulated among the prime minister's supporters says. "We cannot allow ourselves to be tarnished in the same way."Yet for all Sir Keir's warnings against division, among many Labour MPs this morning there is actually a surprising amount of unity. They are increasingly unified in the belief that Burnham's destination of Downing Street is assured, and that the only open question is the precise path for getting there.The word being used more and more to describe the leadership contest which is now inevitable is "coronation". In other words, MPs are saying they do not believe a leadership election will get to the stage where Labour Party members have their say.Instead, they believe, Burnham will end up being t...