Labour latest: Rayner pays £40,000 stamp duty to start challenge

A battle appears under way to lead the Labour Party and become the next Prime Minister amid feverish speculation a leadership contest will be triggered today.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting is widely believed to launch a formal challenge to Sir Keir after the pair’s 15-minute showdown in Downing Street before the King’s Street.

Angela Rayner has declared she has been cleared by the taxman thereby eliminating a major obstacle between her and the highest job in the land.

While Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham is also poised to reveal whether he has a pathway to return to the Commons to re-enter the fray.

Ed Miliband and junior minister Al Carns have also been talked about as running in any contest.

Meanwhile allies of Sir Keir are continuing to signal their support amid suggestions the Prime Minister won’t leave No10 without a fight.

Insider close to Sir Keir Starmer have claimed Wes Streeting’s team is ‘up to mischief’ amid confusion over whether he will launch a formal challenge today.

Sources close to the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones have denied rumours that he is telling MPs Sir Keir is going to step down.

Allies of Mr Streeting are briefing he has the numbers to trigger a leadership contest and that the Prime Minister could be preparing to go.

Asked whether Mr Jones has been relaying that information to colleagues, a source close to the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary said:

No. He spent six hours last night talking MPs down and I’ve been briefing all morning Wes is well short on numbers.

They also said Mr Streeting’s team is ‘up to mischief because they know he’s short on numbers’.

All eyes are on Wes Streeting today as Labour’s leadership anarchy gears up towards a critical moment.

The Health Secretary has yet to break cover to mount a formal challenge to Keir Starmer, amid jibes from loyalists that he is ‘bottling it’ and does not have enough support.

The chaos took a dramatic twist this morning as Angela Rayner declared she had been cleared by the taxman – and suggested Sir Keir should consider quitting.

Even natural supporters of Mr Streeting have concerns that he might only succeed in opening the door for a hard-Left leader.

Backbencher Luke Akehurst said: ‘I would urge Wes not to resign or start a leadership contest. I think he needs to be part of the cabinet team still, and my big concern is that he might start a contest that a candidate from the left of the party would win’.

Allies of Wes Streeting have told reporters ‘things are shifting’ amid doubts the Health Secretary will launch a formal challenge against Sir Keir Starmer today.

His supporters insist he has the numbers required to trigger a contest but whether he actually makes a move remain uncertain.

Meanwhile, one journalist has suggested it appears increasingly unlikely Mr Streeting will launch today.

They claim Angela Rayner’s announcement that she has been cleared by HMRC has made him pause for thought.

Labour MPs on the Left of the party were last night debating whether to back Angela Rayner or Ed Miliband if Andy Burnham is locked out of the race.

Mr Miliband was emerging as favourite despite being rejected by the public at the 2015 election, although his wife Justine Thornton is thought to be against the idea of him running for the leadership again.

The Energy Secretary would be seen as the ‘Stop Streeting’ candidate

Other potential candidates on the soft left include deputy leader Lucy Powell and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy.

Labour MP Brian Leishman has said he would back Andy Burnham in a leadership race and describes him as the party’s ‘most skillful communicator’.

The representative for Alloa and Grangemouth in Scotland said his distance from the Government also stands him in good stead.

He told the PA News agency:

No one in the Cabinet’s hands are clean from the first two years of Keir Starmer’s leadership.

On Mr Burnham’s record as Greater Manchester mayor, Mr Leishman said it ‘speaks for itself’.

I also think that he is probably the most skillful communicator in the Labour Party at the moment, at whatever level, and he is the best person that I think that can basically take the fight, the growing fight and danger that Reform pose.

Andy Burnham is undoubtedly, in my opinion, the most skillful Labour politician to deliver proper Labour values – I want to see him in Parliament, I want to see him in leadership.

If Sir Keir Starmer is toppled, Labour need to put their choice to the country at large, Sarah Vine has argued.

Speaking on the latest Alas Vine & Hitchens podcast, the longstanding Mail columnist said she believes a new Prime Minister would need to call an election in order to have a mandate to rule.

The podcast also saw the duo debating the merits of universal suffrage – the ability for all citizens to vote – with Vine sharing her theory that Manchester mayor Andy Burnham is ‘the Heathcliff of the Labour Party’.

‘I think the problem with the way the system that we have is a lot of people vote, and they’re not really informed, they’re they’re not voting because they thought about it.

‘They’re just voting because they fancy Andy Burnham, because he’s got nice eyelashes or whatever. I have a theory that Andy Burnham is like the Heathcliff of the Labour Party.

Al Carns is said to be preparing to join a Labour leadership contest if one is triggered against Sir Keir Starmer.

The Armed Forces minister, who served five tours in Afghanistan and was awarded the Military Cross for gallantry, outlined his views on the problems facing the party in an almost 1,000-word essay in the New Statesman, known as Labour’s ‘bible’.

He wrote that working class voters felt the party ‘stopped understanding their lives, and so they looked elsewhere’, in last week’s local elections, including backing Reform UK.

The junior minister was elected as an MP less than two years ago in Birmingham Selly Oak and is now touted as a dark horse candidate.

Sky News is reporting Mr Carns would throw his hat into the ring if a leadership challenge is launched.

Allies of Wes Streeting have claimed the numbers of MPs backing him are ‘rock solid’ amid suggestions the Health Secretary does not have the required support to trigger a leadership contest.

Insiders backing Mr Streeting responded following suggestions from those close to Sir Keir Starmer that he has fallen short. Mr Streeting can trigger a contest if he has the support of 81 Labour MPs.

‘The numbers are rock solid,’ the source told The i Paper.

Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander said there had been ‘twists and turns’ in the Labour Party’s leadership ‘drama’, but stressed there was no bid as yet to oust the Prime Minister.

Mr Alexander said: ‘For all the headlines, there is a process by which a challenge to the Labour Party leadership can be conducted, and that process hasn’t been triggered.’

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Breakfast programme, the Scottish MP accepted ‘these are difficult days’ for the party across the UK after last week’s poor election performance.

But he said the Prime Minister had been ‘clear’ that he accepted responsibility for the ‘very bad set of results’.

Mr Alexander said: ‘The Prime Minister has my support, I am a member of the Cabinet.

‘I think for all of the speculation, for all of the headlines, it’s worth holding on to the fact we’ve seen twists and turns in this drama even in recent days.

‘There’s a process by which a challenge to the Labour Party leadership can be conducted, and that process simply hasn’t been triggered this morning.’

The Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary Darren Jones has arrived in Downing Street, where he did not stop to answer questions from reporters before heading in to No 10.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury James Murray said he hoped Wes Streeting would still be Health Secretary by the end of Thursday.

Asked whether Mr Streeting was still in post, amid speculation that he will quit, Mr Murray told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘He is the Health Secretary, and I hope he is the Health Secretary by the end of the day.’

Mr Murray also warned against a leadership contest, saying: ‘I would say to all colleagues, take a deep breath. Take a step back.

‘Make sure that we recognise we’re less than two years into this Parliament. Look at what we’ve done so far. Look at the benefits of the stability that we brought to Government, make sure that we don’t go into a chaotic process of uncertainty, and make sure we focus on what people want us to be doing.’