Allies of Angela Rayner say the former deputy prime minister will seek to renew her public profile in the coming months and would be likely to run in a future leadership contest.
In her first major interview this weekend, Rayner condemned the “arrogant tittle-tattle” and Labour infighting dominating the past week. Rayner, often considered as a potential successor to Keir Starmer, declined to rule out running for the job or returning to frontline politics, saying she had “not gone away”.
However, those close to Rayner, who had been seen as a frontrunner to succeed Starmer until her shock resignation over underpaid stamp duty, say she was significantly shaken by the impact on her family. They said that would be the key factor over whether she would run and that it was nonsense that she was plotting any imminent challenge.
One source close to Rayner said she had left her role as housing secretary with a much clearer view of how to implement Labour values in government and would be keen to return to do more. She has recently joined the Tribune group of soft Labour MPs, run by the ex-cabinet minister Louise Haigh, which hopes to grow considerably in influence.
Rayner has told allies she would never have attempted to force Starmer to step down and would have run as leader only if he had made his own decision to resign. “The idea she’d want to be in the heart of the storm again right now is for the birds,” one said. “But if things kick off again after the May elections, then who knows.”
Speaking to the Daily Mirror in her constituency, Rayner criticised the briefing against Wes Streeting, the health secretary, accused by some allies of Starmer of plotting to challenge the prime minister.
“I think Wes has clearly set out his stall after what was clearly a very turbulent couple of days and I think being around here for the last hour just shows you actually that that tittle-tattle in Westminster, it almost looks arrogant when you’ve got real challenges that real people are facing and that’s what we really need to be focusing on,” she said.
MPs have long suggested that Rayner and Streeting could do a deal over the leadership, though there is no agreement over who would have the top job.
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The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, also called the past week of leadership speculation “mortifying” and warned her party not to forget the privilege of being in government.
Mahmood, speaking on the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme, said she hoped Starmer could now draw a line under the speculation. “I think what happened earlier on this week was horribly embarrassing. It’s deeply mortifying for everybody in the government, and I’m pleased that the prime minister has dealt with it,” she said.
“I think that everybody needs to draw a line under what’s happened and move on, because actually, we’ve got a really important job to do. We all have important, difficult jobs to do, and it is incumbent on all of us as cabinet ministers to focus on the job.”
Mahmood said it was unlikely anyone would be identified as directly responsible for the briefing, after a week of speculation about the position of Morgan McSweeney, the prime minister’s chief of staff.
“One of the difficulties of these sorts of briefings, it is very difficult to find out exactly who was responsible, but I hope that the individuals who were responsible, who are now feeling the abject humiliation of what has happened, that that humiliation will serve as a reminder that they should not indulge in a repeat performance,” she said.
“The prime minister has made his position very clear. He sets a tone for the government. None of this is acceptable. We all need to focus on the people who put us in government in the first place. It is an incredible privilege to be the government of this country. We are only ever granted a few years at a time, and Labour governments don’t come along that often in the history of this country. We have precious time. We must not waste a single second of it.”
