Angela Rayner: Labour's next leader?

Angela Rayner has said that she "never" wants to be leader of the Labour Party amid mounting speculation that she has ambitions to replace Keir Starmer.

The deputy prime minister's designs on party leadership have been the subject of much discussion after a memo was leaked to The Telegraph in which Rayner suggested tax rises as an alternative to Chancellor Rachel Reeves' planned spending cuts. Sources close to Rayner have strenuously denied she was behind the leak or has ambitions of challenging Starmer's leadership.

Speaking to Sky News' "Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips", Rayner sought to kill off the speculation. "I don't want to be leader of the Labour Party," she said. "My desire is to deliver for the people of this country who have given me opportunities beyond what I could have dreamed of." When asked by Phillips to say the word never, she replied: "Never."

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What did the commentators say?

"Rayner is a consummate political actress," said Anne McElvoy in the i on Politics newsletter, "but even she could not easily pull off the poker-faced feint" during her televised repudiation of leadership aspirations. As one Starmerite supporter "acidly" told McElvoy: "She would like to be PM and chancellor – and she sees the moment to change the course of this government."

Indeed, the leaked memo shows that "the battle to succeed Sir Keir Starmer is already under way", positioning Rayner as "a champion for Labour MPs" frustrated by Reeves' cuts and "tax hikes", said the Daily Express. The memo sends a "clear signal" – "another way is possible".

"Inside the Labour Party, there may not be a vacancy but there is always a contest," said George Eaton in London's The Standard. Rayner nearly led a "union-backed coup" against Starmer in 2021. In the intervening years, her role has sometimes looked "precarious", but she is now in a "stronger position" than both her potential rivals, Reeves and Wes Streeting. Though linked to the "soft left", she can "bridge its warring factions" and is close to New Labour giants Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. It may seem early to debate Starmer's successor, but Labour is "an unusually unpopular government".

Rayner may have leadership ambitions, said Andrew Grice in The Independent, but "that doesn't mean she is plotting against him now". A "Momentum-style" grass-roots rebellion is also unlikely: "Labour MPs don't do regicide", and Starmer's allies "have a firm grip on the Labour machine".

Still, he "won't be prime minister for ever", said Kitty Donaldson in The i Paper. Like Punxsutawney Phil in the film "Groundhog Day", "Rayner's intervention is a politician poking her head out of her hole, sniffing around for signs of spring". She might go back into her hole for now, "but she won't be underground for ever".

What next?

Questions about Rayner’s leadership ambitions come amid "increasing unease over the direction of the party" among Labour's rank and file, said The Independent. This is particularly so over its "hard line on migration, upcoming welfare cuts and last year's decision to means-test winter fuel payments".

While Rayner may over the weekend have denied plans to run for leader, "senior" Labour MPs believe she’s "positioning herself as a 'credible' left-of-centre alternative", said The Times. And it would be "easy" for her "to say she had changed her mind at a later date".