Angela Rayner was ready to “take Starmer out” as Labour Party leader in 2021 after she was sacked as party chair in a reshuffle, a new book has claimed.
The deputy prime minister was stripped from her role as chair and campaign coordinator after the party suffered a devastating loss in the Hartlepool by-election of May 2021.
Starmer considered resigning over the defeat, but was said to have been advised by his chief of staff Morgan McSweeney to make changes within the party – starting with Rayner’s role.
The news was not received well by Rayner, who, according to an upcoming book called Get In, reportedly “swore” at the party leader and “walked out” of a short meeting with him.
Sources close to Rayner have told the authors she was ready to launch a coup – before she backed down to avoid “a nuclear missile on their faces”.
The claim is the latest revelation in the book by journalists Patrick Maguire and Gabriel Pogrund, which tells the story of the Labour Party under Sir Keir Starmer.
In an extract of the book published in The Times, one of Rayner’s closest confidants revealed she was ready to launch and said: “We could have taken him out there and then, without a shadow of a doubt. All of the unions were on board. We had Unite. We had the money. Momentum were lined up. We were done. We had a rally of 5,000 people ready to go.”
The book claims one of Starmer’s leading advisers called Rayner “in tears, begging her not to run”.
Eventually the conflict was de-escalated and the deputy leader was given the roles of shadow first secretary of state, shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and shadow secretary of state for the future of work.
A friend of Rayner reportedly said: “They backed down because they realised if they wanted to go toe to toe, we’d have landed a nuclear missile on their faces.”
The book claims that Rayner remained unsure about Starmer’s leadership however, and reportedly later texted one confidant to “remark that she did not know who ran the Labour Party”.
On Labour’s election victory last year, Rayner was appointed the UK’s deputy prime minister by Sir Keir. She is also secretary of state for housing, communities and local government.
