Andy Burnham is one of the frontrunners to replace Sir Keir Starmer if he resigns as Prime Minister.

The Manchester Mayor has previously indicated he would be willing to overthrow the current Labour leader.

As the current Mayor of Manchester, who does not have a seat in Parliament, the route to the top could be strewn with hurdles for Mr Burnham.

Let’s take a look at what steps he would have to take before becoming the UK’s next prime minister.

Firstly, a vacant parliamentary seat would need to be available and finding one may not be an easy task.

There are two by-elections coming up in Scotland, after both SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn (Aberdeen South) and SNP MP Stephen Gethins (Arbroath and Broughty Ferry) were elected to Holyrood.

Mr Burnham is unlikely to stand in either of these Scottish seats.

• Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee

If a seat were to become vacant, Mr Burnham would need to win over the National Executive Committee (NEC), who is responsible for choosing Labour’s candidates.

In January this year the NEC blocked Mr Burnham from running in Gorton and Denton.

A 10-strong group, including the Prime Minister, voted to deny Mr Burnham permission to stand in the Greater Manchester by-election.

Sir Keir justified the move arguing ‘an election for the Mayor of Manchester when it’s not necessary would divert our resources away from the elections that we must have.’

If Mr Burnham were to be elected to Parliament, only then could he make a Labour leadership bid.

According to the Labour Party rule book, candidates seeking to enter the ballot must be an MP.

This is because the Labour leader is the Prime Minister, therefore they would need to be a Member of Parliament.

The current rules state a candidate must receive nominations from 20% of their Labour colleagues in Parliament to be in the running.

They must also receive nominations from 5% of constituency Labour Parties (CLPs), or at least three affiliates of the party, with at least two being trade unions.