UK's Starmer hopes a vision of 'renewal' can silence doubts about his leadership

LIVERPOOL, England — Keir Starmer never had much of a political honeymoon. Now some members of his political party are considering divorce.

Little more than a year after winning power in a landslide, Britain’s prime minister is fighting to keep the support of his party, and to fend off Nigel Farage, whose hard-right Reform UK has a consistent lead in opinion polls.

The next election is as much as four years away, but as thousands of Labour Party members gathered Sunday for their annual conference beside the River Mersey in Liverpool, many lawmakers were anxious — and a potential leadership rival to Starmer has emerged in Andy Burnham, the ambitious mayor of Manchester.

Starmer shrugged off the discontent, telling the BBC that “in politics, there are always going to be comments about lea