ANGELA Rayner today tore into Sir Keir Starmer’s failing political project and backed Andy Burnham’s return to Westminster after Labour’s election bloodbath.
The former Deputy PM launched a devastating broadside against the direction of the Government, admitting “what we are doing isn’t working” and declaring: “This may be our last chance.”
Former Deputy PM Angela Rayner Credit: Alamy
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer Credit: Getty
But despite fevered speculation she was preparing to move against Sir Keir, Ms Rayner stopped short of launching a leadership bid.
Instead, she made clear blocking the Greater Manchester Mayor from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election was a “mistake”.
Mr Burnham is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Labour’s soft-Left, with many MPs believing he would be a far stronger unifying figure than Ms Rayner in any future leadership contest.
However, he is currently unable to run because he is not an MP.
Mr Rayner’s highly-choreographed intervention came as the PM prepares a desperate relaunch after Labour’s disastrous local election results, which saw the party lose almost 1,500 council seats and slump to third place in Wales behind Reform and Plaid Cymru.
Instead of directly calling for Sir Keir to quit, the former Cabinet Minister delivered a bruising critique of the political project built around him.
She attacked the “Peter Mandelson scandal”, blasted the decision to slash winter fuel payments and warned Labour was becoming “a party of the well-off, not working people”.
She warned voters now felt “hopeless” and said ministers had failed to respond quickly enough to the cost of living crisis.
In another ominous message to the PM, she said: “The Prime Minister must now meet the moment and set out the change our country needs.
“Change our economic agenda to prioritise making people better off, change how we run our party so that all voices are listened to, and change how we do politics.
“Labour exists to make working people better off. That is not happening fast enough, and it needs to change — now.”
Eze Chidiebere Paul
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