Angela Rayner has issued a dramatic ultimatum to Sir Keir Starmer that his government must take a hard turn to the left ahead of the embattled prime minister giving a speech to save his political career on Monday morning.
With speculation mounting that she is ready to launch a leadership challenge, the former deputy prime minister, who still has to resolve issues over unpaid tax, has warned Sir Keir: “What we are doing isn’t working, and it needs to change. This may be our last chance.”
It comes as Labour MPs believe that former minister Catherine West is closing in on the number of parliamentarians she would need to launch a stalking horse leadership challenge.
While Ms West has not formally asked for nominations yet and made it clear she will wait to hear the prime minister’s make-or-break speech, it is understood that already around 70 of her colleagues are willing to back her to ensure there is a contest.
Ms West would need the support of 80 MPs to formally launch a leadership bid but could trigger the process simply by contacting the party’s National Executive Committee.
It comes as the prime minister was warned that he will need to “give the speech of his life” if he is to hope to remain in office, with the number of Labour MPs publicly calling for him to quit increasing by the hour.
Former home secretary Lord David Blunkett told Times Radio: “I think either Keir pulls out the stops and there’s a massive transformation in how we relate to the public. Or he and [his wife] Victoria will have to talk about the best way of doing it in a seemly fashion and someone else will take over. The jury’s well and truly out.”
MPs have reacted with outrage over Sir Keir giving an interview over the weekend suggesting that he wants to be prime minister for a decade.
Meanwhile, Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite the union, warned: “The Labour Party is in danger of going extinct.”
But along with Ms Rayner, health secretary Wes Streeting, energy secretary Ed Miliband and defence minister Al Carns, a former Royal Marines commander, are all thought to be preparing bids.
Looking at the results of last week’s local elections, Ms Rayner noted: “We are in danger of becoming a party of the well-off, not working people.”
And in a barbed attack on Sir Keir’s time as prime minister, she said: “The Peter Mandelson scandal showed a toxic culture of cronyism. Decisions like cutting winter fuel allowance just weren’t what people expected from a Labour government.”
But laying out a left-wing agenda, she insisted: “We have the chance to fix this.”
She called for more interventions in cutting household bills, increased planning reforms, more community ownership and taking private companies into public ownership.
She criticised Sir Keir for blocking Andy Burnham from returning to parliament, claiming: “We can only prove we mean it by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism.”
And with an implied threat to the leadership, she added: “The prime minister must now meet the moment and set out the change our country needs.
“Change our economic agenda to prioritise making people better off, change how we run our party so that all voices are listened to, and change how we do politics.
“Labour exists to make working people better off. That is not happening fast enough, and it needs to change, now.”
The fallout from last week’s catastrophic results for Labour has fuelled fears on the left of the party that Mr Streeting is planning a coronation to replace Sir Keir.
A source close to Mr Streeting denied he had told Sir Keir he is ready to be prime minister but confirmed that, having failed to endorse the prime minister on Friday, the health secretary is not planning any further interventions until Thursday when new NHS data is set to be published.
Meanwhile, one member of the 2024 intake of Labour MPs confirmed that a leadership team is being put together for Mr Carns.
They said: “Why are we turning once again to the same familiar faces to solve problems they were involved in creating? If we want to demonstrate genuine change to the public, we need a fresh face leading that change. Members of the 2024 intake are still hopeful of persuading Al Carns to stand should there be a contest, and support for that view appears to be growing.”
Ms West’s move over the weekend has forced the different rivals to Sir Keir’s crown to reset their plans, but supporters of Ms Rayner have privately claimed that Mr Streeting will get some of his backers to nominate her to launch a contest which he could then enter himself without taking the blame for starting it.
Nervousness in Downing Street over another crisis week for the prime minister ahead of the King’s speech on Wednesday was underlined by a delay in a trail for the keynote speech aimed at resetting his government.
It is understood that Sir Keir wants to discuss reversing key parts of Brexit as he tries to regain the initiative after his party was almost wiped out in Wales, suffered its worst-ever result in Scotland and lost around 1,500 council seats in England.
Almost 40 Labour MPs have come out publicly to call for him to go or set a timetable for his departure, with many more agreeing privately.
Earlier, education secretary Bridget Phillipson issued a defence of Sir Keir.
She told Sky News: “I’ve knocked on doors right across the country and in my own community, as colleagues will have done too and as party members will have done as well.
“And what I heard was not a desire for a leadership contest, for the Labour Party to spend more time talking amongst ourselves.
“What I heard loud and clear from voters was their deep sense of frustration that they’d voted for change in 2024, they were hopeful that that change would be delivered and they don’t feel that we as a party or we as a Labour government have delivered what they wanted.”
But, among a number of MPs to come out demanding Sir Keir departs, Jarrow and Gateshead East MP Kate Osborne wrote for The Independent: “The direction Keir has taken the Labour Party has not only seen us lose councils and councillors who are delivering for the local people but it is also destroying the Labour Party.”
Others urged the party to resist a coup and take time to choose a new leader.
Leeds East MP Richard Burgon, who chairs the Socialist Campaign Group and wants Mr Burnham to return and take the leadership, said: “What we need instead is for Keir to set a date for his departure, followed by a full and proper democratic contest that can look at what went wrong and how we change course to win back trust and support, with a broad range of candidates and viewpoints represented.
“And that process has to involve all MPs, not just the Cabinet, as well as trade unions and party members, all of whom must have a democratic voice in choosing Labour’s future direction.”
