by Martin Beckford and Jason Groves

Keir Starmer’s Government was frozen in the headlights last night as the plots to topple him finally burst into the open.

On another dramatic day at Westminster, Andy Burnham announced plans for a return to Parliament, where the self-styled ‘King of the North’ hopes to stage a coup against the Prime Minister within months.

The move came just hours after Wes Streeting delivered a brutal assessment of the PM’s character as he quit the Cabinet to prepare his own leadership bid. And Angela Rayner signalled she is ready to contest any fight after agreeing to hand over £40,000 in unpaid stamp duty to settle a dispute with the taxman.

She claimed she had been ‘cleared’ of wrongdoing by HM Revenue and Customs, although experts were questioning why she had not been fined.

Kemi Badenoch warned that the Labour infighting would paralyse the Government for months at the very moment Sir Keir has pledged to accelerate reforms following Labour’s disastrous performance at the local elections.

The Tory leader said: ‘The Labour Party has now descended into civil war. And while they’re sharpening their knives and plotting in the bars of Westminster, nobody is running the country.’