Andy Burnham was spotted eating a salad in the window of a Westminster branch of Pret A Manger this week, causing some passers-by to double check it really was the man who professes to hate SW1 so much.

He is not the only Labour leadership hopeful with much to chew on as Christmas approaches.

The MP does not exist who believes Keir Starmer will not face a challenge at some point in 2026, the only question being whether it will be before or immediately after May’s local elections.

Despite No.10′s seeming determination to cancel as many English council votes as they can next year, the prime minister’s imminent reckoning with the electorate is coming one way or another.

A poll this week showed that in Wales, where Labour has ruled the roost for a century, the party’s support is a paltry 10%, miles behind both Plaid Cymru and Reform UK.

And while the party’s prospects at the upcoming Scottish Parliament elections are not as grim, there is precisely zero chance of them forming the next government at Holyrood.

No wonder, then, that SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn could not resist asking Starmer at PMQs on Wednesday how he plans to spend his final Christmas in 10 Downing Street.

Even the PM himself admitted on Monday, only half-jokingly, that speculation about who the next Labour leader will be is “pretty rife” at Westminster.

Some of the party’s more pessimistic MPs believe that it is largely irrelevant who is in charge when the next general election rolls........

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