Angela Rayner wields the knife that could finish Keir Starmer – but will she take the crown?
TThere was a sigh of relief when Angela Rayner stood up in the House of Commons and made it clear she would vote with the Conservative Party against Sir Keir Starmer.
This was the moment when the prime minister should have realized he had to abandon his attempts at damage limitation over the publication of embarrassing investigative documents into the appointment of Lord Peter Mandelson as US ambassador.
We need to remember that it was Ms Rayner who once called the Conservative Party “scum” but has now found common cause with them at a time when the beleaguered prime minister is vulnerable.
Seeing visions of Brutus in the Roman Senate, Sir Keir may well have been muttering “et tu Angela” as he was forced into a humiliating U-turn as his respected reputation for honesty and good judgment was questioned by MPs in government and opposition benches.
The old adage in politics is that whoever wields the knife never gets the crown.
It was right for Michael Heseltine to dismiss Margaret Thatcher in 1990, it was right for Michael Gove to eliminate Boris Johnson in 2016, it was right for Rishi Sunak to (initially) end Mr Johnson’s premiership in 2022.
But it will also apply to Ms Rayner after her dramatic intervention in a parliamentary debate on the Mandelson scandal on Thursday.
Despite resigning less than six months ago over personal tax payments, the former deputy prime minister’s replacement for Sir Keir is now being openly discussed.
As explained by Independent At the time, Ms Rayner privately felt betrayed by Sir Keir and his private secretary, Morgan McSweeney, over her breakdown triggered by her inability to pay the correct stamp duty rate on her Brighton flat.
Since then he has spent time on the Labor backbenches, rarely intervening and avoiding direct attacks on the government.
He disappointed many of his natural supporters on the party’s left when he gave initial support to Andy Burnham’s unsuccessful return to the House of Commons last month by not joining a letter protesting the Manchester mayor being prevented from standing in the Gorton and Denton by-elections. They were also angry that the government still hadn’t spoken up about some of its perceived abuses on welfare and winter fuel payments.
But it turns out he was just waiting for his moment.
Sir Keir is now on the ropes. MPs are openly calling on him to resign, and he is about to embark on the last of several resets to save his government just 91 months after coming to power with a huge majority.
Labor’s ratings are still low, his personal ratings are even worse, and if he can hold out until February 26, by-elections in Gorton and Denton could finish him off.
Mrs. Rayner knew what she was doing; effectively signaled his intention to run to replace the prime minister.
With Burnham out of the picture and health secretary Wes Streeting seen as too right-wing and too close to Mandelson, Ms Rayner will have a good chance of replacing Sir Keir.
The only question now is whether he overplayed his hand with his dramatic Commons intervention or whether he struck at just the right moment.
