ANDREW PIERCE: How Lady Vic's Holy Trinity of three strong women inside No 10 are urging Starmer to take on 'lightweight' Andy Burnham

By ANDREW PIERCE, DAILY MAIL CONSULTANT EDITOR AND COLUMNIST Published: 01:05, 10 June 2026 | Updated: 01:22, 10 June 2026 He's not usually a fan of late-night news programmes. Yet Sir Keir Starmer made sure to tune into a special edition of BBC2's Newsnight last Friday. Andy Burnham, the favourite to replace Starmer as Labour leader, was doing his first set-piece interview since confirming the night before that he plans to run in a leadership contest if he wins next week's Makerfield by-election. Even the most loyal supporters of the mayor of Greater Manchester and self-styled 'King of the North' privately concede that Burnham's Friday-night grilling by host Victoria Derbyshire was a PR disaster. Burnham visibly squirmed when he was unable to name the three fiscal rules set by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves, which he had solemnly pledged to uphold during the by-election campaign. 'I'm not going to go through an exam on the fiscal rules. I know what the fiscal rules are,' he blustered. Nor could he make even a basic case for why he might make a better prime minister than Starmer. The stuttering performance by one of Labour's supposedly great communicators was further ammunition for Starmer's most die-hard supporters. Led by the Prime Minister's wife, Victoria, they believe that he should fight the 'lightweight' Burnham to the political death. I'm told Lady Starmer is often emotional behind the scenes about the attacks on her husband, whom she married in 2007. She has told sceptical Labour MPs at party functions: 'You don't see the man I see.' One senior ministerial source told me: 'As you would imagine, there's no one more loyal to Keir than Vic, who's passionate that Keir fights on. Sir Keir Starmer made sure to tune into BBC2's Newsnight last Friday, where Andy Burnham was doing his first set-piece interview since confirming he plans to run in a leadership contest Led by the Prime Minister's wife, Victoria, Starmer's supporters believe that he should fight the 'lightweight' Burnham to the political death 'He listens to her. They are incredibly close: Keir calls her 'his rock'. They talk all the time about the job. If she says it's time to go, I'm sure he will. 'But I'm telling you, she's adamant he must keep going.' 'Lady Vic', as she is known to many of her friends, has found support in what has become known as the 'No 10 Holy Trinity'. That trifecta is made up of Amy Richards, Downing Street's political director, and Vidhya Alakeson - who became Starmer's joint chief of staff in February after the enforced resignation of the once all powerful Morgan McSweeney. Jill Cuthbertson, Alakeson's fellow chief of staff, is the third member. She cut short her maternity leave to back Starmer last month, when 90 Labour MPs called on him to set a timetable for his exit in the midst of the row over No 10's vetting of Lord Mandelson as US ambassador. The three Downing Street aides have also been dubbed the 'Amazonian' home guard. 'Amy, Vidhya and Jill are as one with Vic that Keir is carrying on,' said the source. 'He won the general election with a landslide and, they think, is not given sufficient credit for it.' On Monday, dozens of junior and middle-ranking ministers were drafted into No 10 for back-to-back meetings around the Cabinet table. Starmer pledged to them he would fight on if, as expected, Burnham challenges. I'm told 'The Holy Trinity' were behind the decision to call the meetings. Indeed, they have also been behind Starmer's attempted fightback in recent days. On Monday, the Prime Minister delivered a speech in which he gave US tech giants a three-month ultimatum to introduce controls preventing children from sending and receiving explicit images on their phones. Next week, he is expected to go further, by announcing an Australia-style ban on social media for under-16s. The source added: 'Vic is the mother of their teenage son and daughter. Like every mum, she's horrified by what children are being exposed to online.' Cuthbertson and Richards and Alakeson - both mothers themselves - are also said to be passionate supporters of a social media ban. Starmer's attack on Big Tech, as his advisers expected, prompted a sharp riposte from the White House, which warned the Prime Minister against imposing restrictions on the likes of Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram), on the grounds of free speech. Far from an unwelcome intervention, the rebuke was music to the ears of Starmer's aides. 'Keir standing up to the Washington plays well,' added a source. Amid Starmer's sudden flurry of political activity, the long-awaited Defence Investment Plan, which was due last autumn, will be published before the Nato summit in Turkey early next month. Billions of pounds will be found from cuts in other budgets - notably transport but not, significantly, from welfare - as Starmer tries to win favour with the Left of his party. Expect, too, more talk about forging ever-closer ties with the EU - catnip to most Labour MPs, party members, and trade unionists who will decide any future leadership contest. Yet inside the No 10 bunker, and among Starmer's dwindling number of ministerial supporters, there is fury that his new policy drive is being depicted by some as a last-ditch attempt to ensure his political legacy. 'This is not about Custer's last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn,' said one loyal ministerial source. 'It's more like Custer's finest hour, when he turned the course of the American Civil War after winning the Battle of Gettysburg [in 1863] against the odds.' A YouGov poll of Labour members last month found that 47 per cent back Burnham, compared to the 31 per cent supporting Starmer Fighting talk indeed. And yet Starmer's team are determined to show that the serious business of government is not being put on hold by the current five-week by-election campaign which could charge the course of political history. No Labour prime minister in the party's 126-year history has ever been toppled in a leadership contest. 'His people are trying to show that Keir is the one who has the levers of power - that he is in change and can still effect great change,' said the ministerial source. Despite the talk of Gettsyburg, there is no doubt that Starmer will be thinking in private about how his premiership will be remembered if he is indeed forced out of office. A YouGov poll of Labour members last month found that 47 per cent back Burnham, compared to the 31 per cent supporting Starmer. But his allies insist that in a leadership contest, likely to last three months, he would close the gap. Starmer would not be the first leader to worry about their legacy in the twilight hours of their premiership. Rishi Sunak used those dying weeks to introduce legislation to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes, which became law this year. When Tony Blair agreed to step down, rather than risk a formal leadership challenge, he talked about the 1999 Northern Ireland peace deal as his greatest achievement. David Cameron, who flounced out of office after losing the Brexit referendum in 2016, hailed gay marriage as his lasting achievement. As for Boris Johnson's legacy, he honed in on the triumphant roll-out of Covid vaccines, mobilising international support for Ukraine, and securing the Brexit deal which eluded his predecessor Theresa May. Unlike May, who was also under siege from her own backbenchers and agreed a date to stand down, Starmer will refuse to do so. One well-placed political figure told me: 'Give Keir credit. He's faced many calls to go and seriously contemplated it when Labour lost the by-election in Hartlepool in 2021, the Tories first win in the town in 60 years. 'But there is one strong reason why he's still there. No comments have so far been submitted. Why not be the first to send us your thoughts, or debate this issue live on our message boards. 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? 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