Angela Rayner lines up leadership tilt - but needs others to put the knife in
Ms Rayner has a grip on the party due to her ability to appeal to the voters who are abandoning Labour both for Reform and the Greens.
Angela Rayner used a speech in a Westminster pub on Tuesday night to launch a scathing attack on Sir Keir Starmer - and present herself as an alternative leader.
The former deputy prime minister warned that "the very survival of the Labour Party is at stake” and that it is “running out of time”.
She said the public “have the impression that we’ve defended the status quo rather than challenged it, represented the establishment, not working people, and at worst, we became it.”
The 45-year-old grandmother also attacked Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood’s plans to make it harder for migrants already in the UK settle permanently - calling them “un-British” and a “breach of trust”.
Ms Rayner’s intervention seems to have already caused the PM to wobble on this front.
When questioned about immigration reforms on Wednesday, Downing Street was unwilling to say that the controversial changes would go ahead - only for the Government to say hours later that its position “has not changed”.
Sir Keir also had a terrible Prime Minister’s Questions where he tried to divert every question about Peter Mandelson and talk about Iran instead.
His backbenchers offered little support and must have been wondering what it would be like to have Ms Rayner at the helm instead.
Ms Rayner has a grip on the party due to her ability to appeal to the voters who are abandoning Labour both for Reform and the Greens.
Her working-class background appeals to those who could be swayed by Nigel Farage.
She grew up in a scheme and had to look after her mother - who had bipolar disorder and could not read or write - as a child.
Ms Rayner became pregnant at 16 and left school without any qualifications, but she has still managed to reach the top of British politics.
Her place on Labour’s soft left - while also having served in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet - endears her to those who are thinking of voting for the Greens.
Hitting out at the UK Government’s immigration policies will do her no harm on that front.
Most Westminster watchers agree that Ms Rayner would beat potential rivals Wes Streeting and Shabana Mahmood in a leadership contest because the Labour membership almost always chooses the most left-leaning candidate.
And Ms Rayner has a big following among the Parliamentary Labour Party. But not all are convinced.
She is still being probed by HMRC for failing to pay £40,000 of stamp duty on her £800,000 three bedroom flat on the south coast of England.
It was this blunder which caused her to resign from the cabinet last year.
One MP said they “still don't see how she can be a credible leadership choice when she's been investigated for tax fraud, no matter what the outcome is.”
The issue definitely still hangs over her and it is hard to imagine that she would overtly go for the leadership without it being resolved.
Ms Rayner may be lining herself up, but she is reliant on another senior figure putting their head above the parapet to oust the PM.
Plenty have been willing to criticise Sir Keir in private, but no cabinet minister joined Anas Sarwar’s calls for Sir Keir to resign last month.
The elections in May are likely to be disastrous and will present an opening for someone to topple him.
But if everyone is too afraid to be the one to stick the knife in, then the Prime Minister will go on.
And Ms Rayner’s quite open challenge to his leadership will have been a failure.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.