Could Angela Rayner be Labour’s first female leader? Her friends and allies seem to think so, judging by the level of briefing that has occurred in recent months. Beginning in the aftermath of the Hartlepool contest in May, the mischief-making culminated eight weeks later in the Times headline the day after the Batley and Spen by-election: ‘Big unions ready to back Angela Rayner against Sir Keir Starmer.’
Such shenanigans have left the Ashton-under-Lyme MP with more titles than Idi Amin. The Grand Poobah now boasts the posts of ‘deputy leader, deputy leader of the opposition, shadow first secretary of state, shadow chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster and shadow secretary of state for the future of work’ – a veritably Osbornesque approach to job collection.
To challenge Starmer of course, any MP – whoever she or he may be – would need to be nominated by 40 of their parliamentary colleagues or 20 per cent of the parliamentary party.
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