Blow for Keir Starmer as two Labour heavyweights publicly hit out at his leadership

Andy Burnham and Dame Emily Thornberry - who is considering running for Labour deputy leader - both publicly voiced alarm over Keir Starmer's leadership

Two Labour heavyweights have hit out at Keir Starmer - saying a "different style" of leadership is needed.

Andy Burnham voiced his alarm that "good people" were having the whip withdrawn as he urged the PM to listen to his MPs. And Dame Emily Thornberry, who is considering running for deputy leader, admitted "things just don't seem to be working" domestically.

Dame Emily warned Labour is in for "the fight of our lives" to prevent Nigel Farage getting into No10 at the next election. Mr Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, warned Labour is becoming fractured. He hit out at the decision to suspend the whip from rebels including Rachel Maskell after backbenchers forced a U-turn on welfare cuts.

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Former Health Secretary Mr Burnham, who was an MP from 2001 to 2017, said: "They need to listen to them (Labour MPs) more and respect them more.

"They were the ones who caused the change in terms of winter fuel and disability benefits. But they shouldn't be punished for that.

"I see good people, good MPs, losing the whip, people like Rachael Maskell, that doesn't seem fair to me. It didn't happen in the governments I was in, in Gordon Brown's government or Tony Blair's government.

"We need a different style here, so that everyone is included and we pull together."

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Mr Starmer came under fire after Labour twice withdrew the whip for groups of left-wing rebels. In the first weeks of the new Government seven were suspended for opposing Mr Starmer over the two-child benefit limit, although five have since been re-admitted.

And in July four - Neil Duncan-Jordan, Brian Leishman, Chris Hinchliff and Rachael Maskell - had the whip withdrawn. Dame Emily said on BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: "We're back on the international scene, but domestically things just don't seem to be working.

"I mean, there are things that we're doing which are fantastic, but nobody seems to know about it." She continued: "Nobody seems to be hearing about that. They hear about the mistakes.

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"And the question is, why are we making these mistakes? We can't afford to keep doing this because we've gone from having the fantastic gift from the British public of a huge majority to now being at 20% in the polls, and we will have in the next election, I think, the biggest fight of our lives."

And Dame Emily added: "The last thing we want is to go from a position where it was thought we would be in for two terms, to hand our country over to Farage." Asked what the problem is, she said: " I think it's not listening. And he's not listening to people of goodwill who want the party to succeed."

A deputy leadership contest was sparked after Angela Rayner's resignation on Friday over a stamp duty blunder.