Wes Starmer has urged Keir Starmer to set the date of his departure from Downing Street on Friday morning in the wake of the Makerfield by-election result.The would-be prime minister also said he had “no doubt” there would be a Labour leadership contest, even if Sir Keir refused to go, as he insisted he had the support of the 80-odd MPs necessary to be on the ballot paper. Mr Streeting said he hopes Andy Burnham, the frontrunner to replace Sir Keir, wins the by-election, allowing him to return to Parliament and challenge the Labour leader. Wes Starmer has urged Keir Starmer to set the date of his departure from Downing Street (PA)He added: “I would hope that after Thursday's by-election, when the results are in… I hope the prime minister will at that stage reflect on his own position and set out a timetable. “I think that would be a better way forward for everyone.” His call came as he made a speech in central London setting out his pitch to be PM, in which he ruled out an early general election, backed the triple lock on pensions and praised a former Tory chancellor.But the PM insisted that he would prove his rivals wrong and “carry on with what I was elected to do”. Speaking at the G7 summit in France, Sir Keir also said he would “bring back the change that people desperately need” after the by-election. Mr Streeting has faced questions about the level of his support among MPs since he failed to trigger a contest when he resigned from Sir Keir’s cabinet last month. He said he had wanted to wait for the by-election result as “one of the inevitable candidates is on the ballot paper. And had I tried to pull a fast one and get ahead of Andy Burnham before he came back, I think that would have been foul play.” Pushed on whether he would trigger a contest after the Makerfield result, he said he had “no doubt” that a leadership election would happen. And he said that Sir Keir’s legacy would be as the leader that “saved the Labour Party from oblivion” after the Jeremy Corbyn years. On his vision to lead the country, he was asked if he could rule out an early general election. “Yes,” he said, adding that Labour had a “mandate for a five year parliament”. This is a breaking news story, more follows ...