Angela Rayner is privately canvassing Labour MPs for support for her own leadership campaign while publicly championing Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster — in a dual-track strategy that exposes the ruthless jockeying now consuming the Labour Party as Sir Keir Starmer’s position continues to crumble.
The former Deputy Prime Minister has made vocal public representations that Burnham should be allowed to fight a Commons by-election and re-enter Parliament in time to contest any leadership race. But Labour sources have told the Daily Mail that she is simultaneously texting MPs to gauge support for her own bid should events move too quickly for the Greater Manchester Mayor to return.
“Publicly, she is making very loud representations that Andy should be allowed back,” one source told the Daily Mail. “But she is also texting everyone saying she is ready to go. If Andy does get back, she would probably have to row in behind him. But there is a scenario where he can’t get back in time and then, as she sees it, the hand of history falls on her shoulder.”
The two are reported to have signed a non-aggression pact, with Rayner pledging not to stand against Burnham in exchange for a promise that he would return her to the role of Deputy Prime Minister if he takes power. Despite this arrangement, sources make clear that Rayner is keeping her own options firmly open.
Her ambitions come with significant baggage. She was forced to quit the Cabinet last year after it emerged she had failed to pay £40,000 in stamp duty on a luxury apartment in Hove — 260 miles from her Greater Manchester constituency. The case remains under investigation by HM Revenue and Customs. Allies insist she will eventually be cleared and that the investigation will not prevent her from launching a leadership bid, but a YouGov poll last week found the public holds an unfavourable view of her by a margin of 56 to 21 — worse than either Burnham or Health Secretary Wes Streeting, and only marginally better than Sir Keir himself.
Her prospects have been further complicated by reports in the Daily Mail this month that she stumbled heavily into a door after a late night socialising in Parliament’s Strangers Bar. “That incident has reopened all the old questions about whether she really has the temperament for the top job,” one MP said.
Allies of Streeting — the Blairite candidate who would be the clear frontrunner in a quick contest — have been blunt about the risks of installing Rayner as leader. “Do people really want to replace one scandal-hit leader with another?” one source said, drawing a pointed parallel with Sir Keir’s downfall, which was accelerated by his controversial appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
Despite the obstacles, Rayner’s supporters believe her strong standing among Labour members could see her beat Streeting in a contest decided by the membership rather than MPs alone. On Monday she savaged Starmer in a speech for blocking Burnham’s attempt to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election earlier this year, calling the decision “a mistake that the leadership of our party should put right.” The previous day she published a thousand-word statement calling for higher minimum wages, greater economic powers for regional mayors and what she described as new forms of “public, community and cooperative ownership” — a programme she insisted could be delivered within existing fiscal rules.
