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.

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.’

Labour’s leadership anarchy took a dramatic twist today as Angela Rayner declared she had been cleared by the taxman – and suggested Keir Starmer could consider quitting.

The former deputy PM effectively threw her hat into the ring by announcing that she has paid £40,000 to settle her wrangling with HMRC over unpaid stamp duty.

Crucially, she insisted that she had not been made to pay any penalty for deliberately or ‘carelessly’ dodging tax. Read the Daily Mail’s full story here:

The FTSE 100 opened 20 points higher this morning, before trading flat within minutes at 10,326.

Bond markets are relatively calm with the 10-year gilt yield slipping 3 basis points, while 30-years are trading down 2 basis points at 5.72 per cent.

Stay in touch with all the latest updates on the economic situation this morning with This Is Money’s ‘Markets Live’:

Rachel Reeves warned Labour MPs that a leadership chaos will crush the economy today.

The Chancellor delivered the stark message as she insisted UK plc has been resilient in the face of the Middle East crisis.

Official figures this morning showed GDP growing by 0.3 per cent in March – the first full month since Donald Trump launch strikes on Iran. That was better than most analysts expected, although slower than February.

Read the Daily Mail’s full story here:

When asked about Angela Rayner’s case, HMRC said: ‘We cannot comment on individuals due to taxpayer confidentiality law.’

Chancellor Rachel Reeves said Labour MPs had an ‘important decision to make’ as she spoke to reporters in Downing Street.

Asked if she was worried about the impact of a potential leadership race on the economic policies she has been working on these past few years, she said: ‘Labour MPs have got an important decision to make today, but the numbers show that the economy is growing and that when we entered this conflict, our economy was growing strongly because of the decisions that I have made as chancellor, we shouldn’t put that at risk.’