The former Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary resigned last year but is thought to now be on manoeuvres.
Angela Rayner has been warned that the ousting of Sir Keir Starmer will backfire. It is thought that the former Deputy Prime Minister and Housing Secretary would be one of the front runners for the Labour leadership were the Prime Minister to step down. Sir Keir has faced arguably the most perilous week of his premiership so far after further revelations about Lord Mandelson in the latest batch of the Epstein Files.
It is alleged that he leaked market-sensitive information from the heart of former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown’s Government to the paedophile financier. A police investigation is underway. The Prime Minister appointed Mandelson as US ambassador last year, and his judgment is now being questioned.
It has been reported that Ms Rayner, who is now on the back benches after resigning over her tax affairs last year, has built up a £1 million “war chest” to force Sir Keir out of office.
But she has now been told that if she became his successor, she would not have a personal mandate from the electorate and so should call a general election.
“If you come in with a completely different agenda then the country legitimately says, ‘We didn’t vote for this’,” a Labour figure who has served on Sir Keir’s front bench told The Telegraph.
