The rules governing Labour party leadership contests should “not be tweaked” to allow Andy Burnham to run, a member of the party’s National Executive Committee has said.

With the health secretary preparing to launch a leadership challenge against Keir Starmer on Thursday, if he can secure the support of enough MPs to trigger a contest, allies of Burnham have warned against a “coronation” for Wes Streeting as the next prime minister.

Burnham’s backers are understood to be lobbying Labour’s NEC to hold an extended leadership election to give him time to return to parliament, calling for a nomination period long enough for him to win a byelection. Such a move could stretch the contest to about three months, drawing out the chaos facing the party.

But calls for the ruling body to allow the Greater Manchester mayor to stand for the leadership suffered a blow on Thursday as Luke Akehurst, the MP for North Durham and a staunch supporter of Starmer, said he didn’t think it was “physically possible for Andy Burnham to participate” if the starting pistol on a leadership contest was fired imminently.

Speaking to Sky News’s Sophy Ridge, Akehurst said it was necessary for prime ministers to be MPs or a member of the House of Lords, which last happened in 1963. “If a contest started right now, I just don’t see how it’s physically possible for Andy Burnham to participate,” he said. “[If we change the rules] we could have a cast of thousands. How about a byelection for David Miliband or a byelection for Ed Balls? I don’t think the Labour party’s rules and procedures are there to be tweaked, to suit one particular person.”

The NEC blocked Burnham’s return to parliament to stave off a potential leadership challenge in January. There was widespread anger among Labour MPs and union backers after the 10-strong “officers’ group” of the party’s ruling body, including the prime minister, voted overwhelmingly to reject Burnham’s request to seek selection for theGorton and Denton byelection.

Angela Rayner, who the Guardian revealed has been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs, said on Thursday that Burnham should not have been prevented from re-entering parliament.

She said: “If somebody wants to come and help, and be part of the future that we can deliver, then absolutely we shouldn’t be blocking people … We cannot afford to be factional about this. We cannot afford to have egos.”

Asked by ITV if she had done a deal with Burnham and was going to support his bid for No 10, she said: “I’m not doing deals.”

Another NEC member, Abdi Duale, told a post-election webinar hosted by FTI Consulting that Labour officials were “backing away” from blocking the return of Burnham, Politico reported on Monday. He said: “Of course, the leader has influence over how the NEC votes. But I do think that influence is diminished by looking at the results and thinking, well, you know, the prime minister is probably not going to take us into the next election. So I imagine colleagues will be weighing that up, because I think old loyalties that existed before 7 May are all being reassessed.”

Labour’s ruling body – which sets guidelines on nominations, timetable, code of conduct – does have a degree of discretion over a leadership contest, in so much as the rules can be “varied by the consent of the NEC”.

Akehurst said he would back Starmer in any contest and said his concern was that it could result in a prime minister that is “significantly to the left of Keir Starmer, me or Wes Streeting”.

He told Nick Ferrari on LBC: “I don’t think the response to Reform sweeping areas like mine in County Durham is to move leftwards. There’s still time to stop this and get behind the PM, and focus on delivery. The country and party don’t need the car crash of a leadership election.

“The PM, who I would back in a contest, would probably win. Labour party members don’t like the idea of chucking their leaders out.”

On Thursday the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, warned that a leadership battle could plunge the UK “into chaos” and threaten its economic recovery, after the UK economy kept growing in March, despite the economic damage caused by the Iran war.

While economists had expected the economy to contract by 0.2%, it increased by 0.6% in the first three months of 2026, driven by a 0.8% boost in the key services industry. In March, the first month after the outbreak of the war, the economy alone grew by 0.3%. It means the UK currently has the biggest GDP growth of all the G7 group of industrialised nations for the first quarter of 2026.

Reeves said the numbers show the government has “the right economic plan” and that “the economy is starting to bear fruit”.