Labour latest: Streeting insists he has the numbers

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.

William Hill has placed Angela Rayner the new favourite to be the next Prime Minister after being cleared by HMRC over her tax affairs.

Rayner now heads the betting at 9/4, ahead of Andy Burnham at 11/4 and Ed Miliband at 5/1, with Wes Streeting now fourth in the market at 11/2 despite reports that he is preparing to resign from the government and mount a leadership challenge.

Attention is also turning to when Starmer might be replaced as Labour leader.

Spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps, said:

Angela Rayner’s HMRC clearance has sent her odds tumbling in our Politics markets; she’s now 9/4 favourite to be the next Prime Minister, ahead of Andy Burnham at 11/4, with Ed Miliband 5/1 and Wes Streeting 11/2 – even as the Health Secretary is reportedly lining up a leadership challenge.

William Hill odds:

• Angela Rayner – 9/4
• Andy Burnham – 11/4
• Ed Miliband – 5/1
• Wes Streeting – 11/2

Downing Street said the Prime Minister retains confidence in Wes Streeting as Health Secretary and the ‘position hasn’t changed’ since Wednesday.

Asked whether Mr Streeting remained in his Cabinet post, Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said: ‘Yes’.

Asked whether the Prime Minister had full confidence in him, the official said: ‘Yes, the position hasn’t changed’.

Downing Street was asked whether Sir Keir Starmer was proud of Wes Streeting’s record in office.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said that ‘thanks to the decisions taken by this Government’ the NHS had improved.

Sir Keir Starmer continues to insist he will fight on, Downing Street said amid threats of a leadership challenge.

No 10 pointed to his comment at Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting that ‘the Labour Party has a process for challenging a leader and that has not been triggered’.

Questions are swirling about whether Wes Streeting has the number of supporters needed to force a race, as allies of the Health Secretary were briefing he may be delaying his expected leadership campaign launch because of the growing pressure on Sir Keir to step down.

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.