Andy Burnham has demanded that Labour take a "different course" in his latest intervention, a week before the local elections. The Greater Manchester Mayor also refused to say if Sir Keir Starmer should stay on after next week's crunch ballots.

Mr Burnham said the expected loss of hundreds of Labour council seats in England must be a “moment of reflection” for the party. He predicted the results would be “challenging” and warned the party needs to “pull through on a different course”.

Mr Burnham declined to say whether the Prime Minister should stay on beyond May 7 and made clear he hopes to make a return to Parliament.

He told Bloomberg: “The politics we’ve pioneered as mayors: place first, not party first — that needs to go national, and so we do need to reform Westminster.

“I can’t remove the kind of feeling that someday I will try and go back. I’m not ruling it out.”

It comes after Mr Burnham was blocked from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-election, which the Greens won, by Labour's ruling committee.

The Greater Manchester Mayor is seen as a leadership rival to Sir Keir Starmer, amid intense speculation that he could be ousted after the local elections.

It comes as a pollster has predicted Labour will suffer devastating losses of more than 75% of the council seats it is defending across England.

Lord Robert Hayward said the governing party will lose some 1,850 seats in councils across the nation.

Labour is also set to be ousted from power in Wales for the first time in history.