Angela Rayner has declared the Labor government is “not working” and says Keir Starmer “now has to live up to the moment” in the latest sign she is ready to stand in to replace him as Labor leader and prime minister.
In her first post-election intervention, Rayner condemned “factionalism” in the Labor Party, said it was wrong to block Andy Burnham from running for parliament, called for immediate change and set out her list of key proposals.
Rayner’s manifesto for change from the left includes supporting the cost of living “within the current fiscal rules”, “a rising minimum wage”, a “building boom” with planning reform and further progress in the “devolution revolution”, including greater power for mayors.
In a statement released on Sunday afternoon, the former deputy prime minister said Labor had suffered a “historic defeat” on Thursday and that “what we are doing is not working and needs to change. This may be our last chance”.
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Rayner’s first words since the disastrous election results have been eagerly awaited since Catherine West, a supporter, vowed to challenge Keir Starmer on Monday if no other contenders emerged.
While Rayner brutally criticizes Starmer’s leadership in the statement, she does not explicitly present her challenge.
However, a close ally said: “She’s backing Andy now, basically, but she’ll run herself if he can’t.”
of NS realizes Rayner is prepared to intervene in any leadership contest that emerges before Burnham returns to the House of Commons.
It is the strongest signal yet that if Catherine West goes ahead with her challenge to the Prime Minister and triggers a contest on Monday, Rayner will be the next Labor leader.
Rayner ended her statement by leaving the door open for the prime minister’s reinstatement, to be announced tomorrow, on which so much already rests: “The prime minister must now rise to the occasion and define the change our country needs.”
“To change our economic agenda to prioritize the betterment of people, to change the way we run our party so that all voices are heard and to change the way we do politics.”
“Work exists to make people work better. That’s not happening fast enough, and that needs to change — now.”
Below is Angela Rayner’s full statement:
Our party has suffered a historic defeat. Many good Labor colleagues have lost their seats despite working hard for those they represented. We have lost good Labor administrations and we have lost the opportunity for more.
What we are doing is not working and needs to change. This may be our last chance.
The Labor Party must now live up to our name: we must be the party of working people.
We’ve heard the same thing on the doorstep as we’ve seen at the polls – cost of living is the top issue for voters of all parties. People have turned to populists and nationalists because we haven’t done enough to fix it.
Living standards are barely higher than a decade and a half ago. People feel hopeless – that the cost of living crisis will never end and now they see oil and gas companies using global volatility to post record profits.
Once again, ordinary people are paying the price for decisions they didn’t make. It’s no wonder that across the UK, working people feel the system is rigged against them.
Things can be much better than this. Countries including Spain and Canada have shown that economies can grow and people can thrive when governments stay true to work and social democratic values and put people first. We must learn from this.
In London, we lost young people who fear they will never be able to afford a house. In my country and across the North, we lost working people whose wages are too low and costs too high. In Scotland and Wales, people currently do not see Labor as the answer.
We are in danger of becoming a party of rich people, not workers.
The Peter Mandelson scandal showed a toxic culture of cronyism.
Decisions like the winter fuel allowance cut were simply not what people expected from a Labor government.
For too long, successive governments have allowed wealth and power to be concentrated at the top without a plan to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are shared fairly. The result is an economy that doesn’t work for the majority, with wealth concentrated in very few hands. This level of inequality, along with squeezed living standards, is the result of a model built on deregulation, privatization and trickle-down economics.
But we have the opportunity to fix this.
We need immediate action to reduce costs for families and put money back into the everyday economy. This can be done within the current fiscal rules, ensuring that those who benefit from the crisis contribute more so that everyone can prosper.
Our Employment Rights Act was just the first step in our plan to make work pay. Now is the time to take the next steps, starting with the Fair Pay Agreement in social care – but not ending there. A rising minimum wage must go alongside our program to get young people into work.
The investment we secured in social and affordable housing should now unleash a building boom that benefits British business and workers. We must double down on tenant reform and show tenants that our action to tackle rents and land charges was just the first step in ending freehold for good.
Our decentralization revolution has begun, but it’s not quite there yet.
Giving mayors powers to transform planning and licensing can boost local business and good growth, in the interests of local people. They must go together with economic powers and public services.
Increasing community ownership and stopping the sale of local assets from pubs to playgrounds will put power back in the hands of locals, helping to restore the pride they feel in the places they live.
We must go further in planning reforms, to build the schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure that the country needs to grow.
We should not be afraid to promote new forms of public, community and collaborative ownership across the board. Buses and trains returning to public hands can now operate for the public good, at prices passengers can afford.
Thames Water is an iconic privatization failure, which resonates for the same reasons. People are rightfully tired of bonuses for bosses who deliver nothing but higher bills. We must meet demands that the public pay the price of private failure.
We must create good jobs that pay good wages while ensuring that defense investment includes a secure manufacturing base. Use our housebuilding program to boost building, invest in the green economy, support SMEs by reforming business norms and increasing support to revive our high streets and local economies, raise the minimum wage and get young people into work.
And then there is politics itself, putting power back into the hands of the people so they can shape the decisions that affect them. We need to tackle the entry of shady money into our politics – something Nigel Farage, who received £5m in a secret personal gift from an offshore crypto baron, will never do. We need to make politics work for ordinary people.
We can only prove we mean it by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism.
This is bigger than personalities, but it’s time to admit that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We need to show that we understand the scale of change the moment requires – which means bringing our best players to Parliament – and embrace the kind of agenda that has been successful locally, rather than reverting to an agenda and policy that has failed people.
These are the battles we must have and the change in direction we must see. Policy tweaks will not fix the fundamental challenges facing our country. This government must, urgently, take measures that make people’s lives significantly better by fixing the foundations of a system rigged against them.
Now the prime minister must fulfill the moment and determine the change that our country needs.
Change our economic agenda to prioritize the betterment of people, change the way we run our party so that all voices are heard and change the way we do politics.
Work exists to make people work better. This is not happening fast enough and it needs to change – now.
(Further reading: Catherine West: I have been inundated with support from MPs and I can go all the way)
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