Downing Street is moving to prevent a damaging split in the Labour Party which could undermine Keir Starmer’s leadership in the wake of Angela Rayner’s dramatic departure from government.
While the Prime Minister has moved quickly to find replacements for her government roles – making David Lammy Deputy Prime Minister and Steve Reed housing secretary – her vacated role as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party will require an election involving the party membership.
There are fears in Downing street that any election campaign could divide the party, with one source saying “the clearest route to victory” would be to stand on an anti-Starmer ticket
While it is not mandatory that the deputy leader has a role in government, it would be expected. If a left-winger opposed to Starmer’s agenda were to win it would prove deeply problematic to Starmer’s premiership.
As a result The i Paper understands Starmer is pushing for a quick Labour deputy leadership contest as insiders warned that a full-blown election could tear the party apart, with left-wingers already railing against the prospect of a “stitch-up” by No 10.
The Deputy Prime Minister quit the Government and her party post as Deputy Leader after she was found by the Prime Minister’s ethics adviser Laurie Magnus to have breached the ministerial code for underpaying stamp duty when buying an £800,000 flat in Hove.
Her departure sparked a significant reshuffle with David Lammy moving from Foreign Secretary to Justice Secretary as well as taking over as Deputy PM, Shabana Mahmood being promoted to Home Secretary, replacing Yvette Cooper who takes over from Lammy as Foreign Secrtary.
Senior Labour insiders, including Starmer loyalists, said it was essential for the PM to ensure a quick contest and ideally a coronation, without having to put a vote to members which one warned would trigger an election where “the clearest route to victory” would be standing “against Keir”.
Graffiti daubed outside the apartment building in Hove, East Sussex, where Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner owns a second home. Gareth Fuller/PA WireIt is up to Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) to decide a timetable for the contest but the Prime Minister is still thought to effectively control it, and is believed to want to ensure a speedy outcome to ensure the party and Government can remain focused on policy delivery and a make-or-break Budget on 26 November.
Under the current rules, a candidate must receive the support of 80 MPs to get on the ballot paper.
Starmer loyalists are hoping this threshold is enough to freeze out left-wingers and other opponents of the Prime Minister, if he can urge MPs to rally around one candidate.
A Government source said it would be “wise” to hold a quick contest and suggested Shabana Mahmood and Emily Thornberry as potential candidates. Mahmood is unlikely to stand, however, after being promoted to Home Secretary.
A Starmer ally and ex-adviser says there needs to be a coronation for deputy leader, a contest would be a distraction and the party and govt need a contest “like a hole in the head”.
MPs were also pushing for a coronation, with one saying: “For the party and for the country there should not be an election.”
Senior party insider says a quick contest “helps everyone – we don’t like introspection anymore”.
They also doubted that the Left would be able to unite behind a candidate to force an election.
Angela Rayner’s resignation letter. Angela Rayner/PA WireRayner ‘acted in good faith’
It is unclear if Lammy wants the job of Labour deputy leader – but he may be able to command support across the party as a unity candidate who could help avoid a factional battle that would be damaging for the Government.
But leading left-winger Richard Burgon called for “a proper election for Deputy Leader, fully in line with the party’s rulebook — and not a leadership stitch-up.”
Insiders also warned that a coronation would give the Greens, Jeremy Corbyn’s new party and the Liberal Democrats a “field day” recruiting spree of members from disgruntled Labour ranks.
Rayner, who was also housing secretary, quit after the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on ministerial interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, said that she failed to “heed the caution” contained within legal advice she received when buying her seaside property in East Sussex, and therefore underpaid stamp duty by £40,000, which she later admitted as a “mistake” which she would seek to rectify.
She was found to have failed to act on legal advice that she should consult tax experts on whether she would need to pay the higher rate of stamp duty, reserved for second homes, because she retained an interest in her constituency home in Ashton-under-Lyne despite it being placed into a complex trust set up for her disabled son after an NHS compensation payout.
Magnus said he believed she had acted in “good faith”, but that “the responsibility of any taxpayer for reporting their tax returns and settling their liabilities rests ultimately with themselves”.
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Rayner told the Prime Minister in a letter on Friday that “I deeply regret my decision to not seek additional specialist tax advice” and said she took “full responsibility for this error”.
In a reply full of praise, Starmer said Rayner would “remain a major figure in our party” and “continue to fight for the causes you care so passionately about.”
Some in the party were even calling on Starmer to scrap the deputy leader post entirely.
One Labour MP said: “Abolish the role altogether at conference. It’s a nonsense and only feeds internal division.”
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