Keir Starmer has signalled he could hand out resignation honours when he leaves Downing Street, despite pledging three years ago he would not hand out gongs when he eventually stood down.

The prime minister twice declined to rule out drawing up a list of honours when he stands down as prime minister in just over 10 days time, to be succeeded by Andy Burnham.

As opposition leader in 2023, Starmer criticised Rishi Sunak for allowing Boris Johnson to hand out a series of awards, including knighthoods, to his political allies, saying it was difficult to justify given the circumstances of his departure.

Asked at the time if he would do the same, he said: “No. There are other opportunities … Tony Blair didn’t have a resignation list. It’s very hard to justify … There are other avenues for that and I think it’s easier to be clear about this and simply say, no, I wouldn’t do it.”

But asked by reporters at the Nato summit in Ankara if he remained committed to not producing a list, he said: “We’ll look at that in the usual course of things.” Pressed again, he gave the same response.

Prime ministers are traditionally allowed to nominate people for honours after they leave Downing Street, but their list has to be approved by their successor and the House of Lords appointments commission.

Liz Truss was granted a “resignation honours” list by Sunak, despite having to resign from No 10 after only 49 days because of turmoil in the financial markets caused by her chancellor’s mini-budget.

He also attracted criticism for having approved Johnson’s resignation honours list, which contained more than 40 names, despite the parliamentary inquiry into whether the former prime minister misled the Commons.

After nominations opened in the uncontested Labour leadership contest to succeed Starmer, Burnham picked up 322 nominations – amounting to 80% of the parliamentary party – meaning he is almost guaranteed to enter No 10.

The tally means that there are only 81 Labour MPs left who could nominate another contender, the minimum needed to get on to the ballot. But convention dictates the outgoing leader does not nominate, meaning there are no longer enough undeclared MPs to back an alternative.

The nominations process began on Thursday morning. A string of MPs came to the PLP offices in Westminster to sign the nomination forms, with many posting on social media to say they had done so.

Shortly before 11am Burnham posted a brief social media video saying he had just nominated himself, adding “hopefully third time lucky”, a reference to his failed bids for the Labour leadership in 2010 and 2015.

Starmer said he believed Burnham would do well in No 10: “Yes, I do. I have known him a long time, I’ve worked with him when I first came to parliament, in his team directly.”

A new leader also needs nominations from at least 5% of all local branches or at least three party-affiliated groups, of which a minimum of two must be unions. Burnham has received the backing of Unite and the Fire Brigades Union.