Angela Rayner calls blocking Andy Burnham’s return to parliament a mistake
Angela Rayner has just released a statement on the fallout from Thursday’s elections. The most significant passage is one in which she calls the decision to block Andy Burnham from parliament a mistake and says Keir Starmer ‘must now meet the moment’. Here is the key extract:
This is bigger than personalities, but it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for – that means bringing our best players into Parliament – and embracing the type of agenda that has been successful at a local level, rather than reaching back to an agenda and politics that has failed people.
These are the fights we need to have, and the change in direction we need to see. Policy tweaks will not fix the fundamental challenges facing our country. This government needs, at pace, to put measures in place that make people’s lives tangibly better, while fixing the foundations of a system rigged against them.
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.
Key events
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Rayner: Labour’s ‘last chance’ to be party of working people
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Angela Rayner calls blocking Andy Burnham’s return to parliament a mistake
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Afternoon summary
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Pat McFadden jeered and booed while speaking at London rally against antisemitism
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Labour’s Richard Burgon says West’s leadership challenge could lead to ‘coronation’, not ‘proper democratic contest’
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Reform UK suspends Sunderland councillor over racist rant – after Tice dismisses questions about him as smear tactics
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Unison leader urges Labour to learn from Polanski, praising him for ‘defending progressive values Starmer has abandoned’
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CWU becomes latest Labour-affiliated union to vote in favour of PR
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Labour ‘facing existential crisis’, says Peter Hain, claiming Starmer won’t survive without fundamental change
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Jury out on whether Starmer can stay on as PM and Labour leader, says David Blunkett
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Don’t let Farage and Reform divide us, Labour’s Sarwar urges Holyrood leaders
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Labour says it’s ‘utterly grotesque’ that Tice refused to condemn racist rant by Reform UK councillor
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SNP defends not inviting Reform UK for talks to discuss Scottish government’s programme
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Starmer says there will be ‘no holding back’ in call for UK to be ‘closer to Europe’, ahead of big reset speech tomorrow
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John McDonnell claims Catherine West being influenced by ‘some in shadows’ who want early contest
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Labour has ‘disconnected’ from working people, and will only deliver change if it challenges the wealthy, CWU leader says
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Ex-minister Josh Simons calls for Starmer to be replaced, saying under PM ‘we constantly talk big, then act small’
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Tice claims millions of voters ‘enormously grateful’ to crypto billlionaire who donated £5m for Farage’s security
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Richard Tice refuses to condemn Reform UK councillor over racist rant, implying it’s just ‘daft’ comment or media smear
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Unite leader Sharon Graham says she’s ‘very sure’ Starmer won’t lead Labour into next election
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West sidesteps question about whether she would get enough MP backers to mount leadership challenge herself
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West tells Phillipson in BBC studio she should consider standing for Labour leadership
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Labour losing support because people don’t think it has delivered change they were promised, Phillipson says
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West not likely to get backing she needs to launch leadership challenge, Phillipson says
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Catherine West’s call for leadership contest ‘completely wrong’, says Bridget Phillipson
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Starmer insists he won’t quit as PM, as former minister Catherine West seeks to trigger Labour leadership contest
In her 1,000-word statement, Angela Rayner has said the scandal over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as US ambassador showed “a toxic culture of cronyism”.
And then there is politics itself, putting power back into people’s hands so that they are shaping the decisions that impact them. We must tackle the inflow of dodgy money in our politics – something that Nigel Farage, who took £5m in a secret personal gift from an offshore crypto baron, will never do. We must make politics work for ordinary people.
We can only prove we mean it by putting the common interest ahead of factionalism.
You can read more about the accusations against Farage over the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire shortly before the last general election.
Rayner: Labour’s ‘last chance’ to be party of working people
Labour’s historic defeat was down to inadequate action to tackle the cost of living crisis, and now it was the party’s “last chance” to be the party of working people, Angela Rayner has warned.
In her statement, the former deputy prime minister said:
We’ve heard the same on the doorstep as we’ve seen in the polls – the cost of living is the top issue for voters of all parties. People have turned to populists and nationalists because we have not done enough to fix it.
Living standards are barely higher than they were a decade and a half ago. People feel hopeless – that the cost of living crisis will never end, and now they see oil and gas companies use global instability to post record profits.
Once again, ordinary people are paying the price for decisions they didn’t make. It’s no wonder that across the UK, working people feel the system is rigged against them.
Things can be so much better than this. Countries including Spain and Canada have shown that economies can grow and people can thrive when governments stay true to labour and social democratic values and put people first. We need to learn from that.
In London, we lost young people who fear they will never afford a home. In my patch and across the north, we lost working people whose wages are too low and costs too high. In Scotland and Wales, people do not currently see Labour as the answer.
We are in danger of becoming a party of the well-off, not working people.
Angela Rayner calls blocking Andy Burnham’s return to parliament a mistake
Angela Rayner has just released a statement on the fallout from Thursday’s elections. The most significant passage is one in which she calls the decision to block Andy Burnham from parliament a mistake and says Keir Starmer ‘must now meet the moment’. Here is the key extract:
This is bigger than personalities, but it is time to acknowledge that blocking Andy Burnham was a mistake. We must show we understand the scale of change the moment calls for – that means bringing our best players into Parliament – and embracing the type of agenda that has been successful at a local level, rather than reaching back to an agenda and politics that has failed people.
These are the fights we need to have, and the change in direction we need to see. Policy tweaks will not fix the fundamental challenges facing our country. This government needs, at pace, to put measures in place that make people’s lives tangibly better, while fixing the foundations of a system rigged against them.
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.
Afternoon summary
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Pat McFadden jeered and booed while speaking at London rally against antisemitism
Pat McFadden, the work and pensions secretary, was jeered and booed as he spoke at the rally against antisemitism in London this afternoon. According to the Press Association, protestors shouted “shame”, “it’s your party’s fault”, “when will you act” and “Jew harmer” at Mr McFadden.
PA says that Kemi Badenoch, Tory leader, was met with raucous applause and cheers and that Richard Tice, the Reform UK deputy leader, also received applause and praise when he spoke. Ed Davey, the Lib Dem leader, “went on to stage to some jeers but the MC of the event told the audience he was here as a friend and the boos stopped,” PA says.
Zack Polanski, the Green party leader, who is Jewish, was not invited to attend – a decision that has been condemned by some campaigners.
Paul Fleming, leader of the performing arts union Equity, has called for Keir Starmer to set out a timetable in which he “resigns and is replaced”. Speaking at his union’s annual conference in Durham, Fleming said:
There is one person who is disproportionately to blame [for the economic situation facing the country]: not Nigel Farage, but Keir Starmer, and this union should have no hesitation in calling for the prime minister to set out a timetable in which he resigns and is replaced.
Labour’s Richard Burgon says West’s leadership challenge could lead to ‘coronation’, not ‘proper democratic contest’
Another prominent leftwing Labour MP has joined John McDonnell (see 11.50am) in opposing Catherine West’s call for an immediate leadership contest, saying it could help the party’s right. In a post on social media, Richard Burgon, secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group, said:
I do understand Catherine West’s deep frustrations. They are shared by a large number of MPs and Labour members who feel we cannot go on like this and that Keir needs to go – as I have also called for.
But I can’t support the proposals she explained on TV this morning.
Catherine’s stated preference is for a Cabinet stitch-up – a kind of palace coup.
That would mean the very people who sat back and allowed terrible decisions like the winter fuel and disability cuts to happen end up deciding the future of the party. That will not be seen by the public as a clean break.
Catherine says that if there isn’t a Cabinet deal, she will trigger an immediate leadership election. I fear there’s a real danger that, whatever her good intentions, her move will be exploited by people on the right of the party who want a coronation and not a proper democratic contest in the party.
In interviews yesterday, West was saying that if no cabinet minister announced a leadership bid by tomorrow morning, she would start gathering support for her own bid.
Today she has made it clear that she intends to wait until after Keir Starmer has delivered his speech before she decides whether or not to stand.
Reform UK suspends Sunderland councillor over racist rant – after Tice dismisses questions about him as smear tactics
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is a Guardian north of England correspondent.
A Reform UK councillor elected in Sunderland on Friday has been suspended following accusations of racism, according to one of the party’s politicians.
Before the election the campaign group Hope Not Hate revealed that Glenn Gibbins wrote on social media in 2024: “Carnt believe amount of nigerians in town… should melt them all down and fill in the pot holes!!”
Gibbins was elected to Sunderland city council in the Hylton Castle ward.
Darren Grimes, the deputy leader of Reform-led Durham county council, was asked about it on Sunday’s edition of the BBC’s Politics North programme.
He told Look North political editor Richard Moss:
He has been suspended and the party is investigating those very serious allegations and we’ll act on them. There was a failure of the vetting process, I accept that.
Earlier Richard Tice, the deputy leader of Reform, refused to directly criticise Gibbins as he accused the media of “smearing and sneering”. (See 10.08am.)
Unison leader urges Labour to learn from Polanski, praising him for ‘defending progressive values Starmer has abandoned’
Andrea Egan, who has general secretary of Unison is head of the biggest union backing Labour, has said the party needs a “radical policy rethink”. In an article for the Guardian, which does not call for Keir Starmer to stay as PM and Labour leader, she urges the party to learn from the Green leader, Zack Polanski. She says:
Instead of overturning the system that concentrates wealth and power in the hands of a few, leaving the majority to suffer through social miseries big and small, Labour has taken pride in tinkering around the edges. It has made a virtue of being some kind of sensible “centre” against two extremes. Our new local electoral map, where green or turquoise have replaced red in so many places, should make clear that this approach is a suicidal one.
The Greens under Zack Polanski have gained so much support because they are defending the progressive values Starmer has abandoned. It is always welcome to see political leaders defending migrants, opposing Israel’s genocide and arguing for economic justice.
But as things stand, we must be clear that the most probable consequence of Labour’s collapse is likely to be a Reform government. One that will seek to reduce union and worker rights while deporting our friends and neighbours. We are not likely to see the triumph of a progressive alliance. For that reason, the prospect of Labour being extinguished as a major political force spells disaster.
Time is short – and as we look to Labour’s near-future, there can be no doubt that a radical policy rethink is necessary. Repairing our public services by taxing extreme wealth should be the starting point.
Here is Egan’s article in full.
Here are some pictures from the rally against antisemitism in Westminster today.
Here are more thoughts on what is going on in the Labour party from journalists monitoring developments.
From Kitty Donaldson from the i
The mood in the Labour Party has shifted overnight, with those on the right now joining the usual suspects on the left to call for a leadership contest tomorrow. Some could lend stalking horse Catherine West their names after Keir Starmer’s speech
But a Cabinet minister tells me: “The overwhelming majority of the Cabinet are still with Keir, and we want Keir to succeed. It’s his responsibility, but it genuinely is our responsibility as well. We’ve got to take it and turn it around.”
A leadership contest “is just fraught with danger” and “it will be a contest no one will get through without being challenged. Just be careful what you wish for,” the Cabinet minister added.
From Steven Swinford from the Times
* It doesn’t sound like anyone other than Catherine West is going over the top, for now at least. Burnham has a vested interest in delay. Streeting is not planning to move at present. Rayner weighing up options but there are concerns she doesn’t have enough support for a formal bid
* But crucially the numbers are slowly ticking up – we have 41 MPs calling for Starmer to go in one form or another, but most are demanding an ‘orderly transition’ – very few want him to go immediately …
* Starmer’s speech tomorrow is still being drafted. There will be some policy but it will be well within manifesto red lines on Europe, migration etc. It doesn’t sounds like he’s ripping things up – more vision. The stakes are high. Will he meet the moment?
* Moderate Labour MPs are considering moving tomorrow if the speech is not enough. After Josh Simons today that would have the potential to swing the balance
CWU becomes latest Labour-affiliated union to vote in favour of PR
At its conference today, the Communication Workers Union voted for a motion saying the first past the post (FPTP) voting system should be replaced with proportional representation (PR). This means eight of the 11 unions affiliated to Labour are now in favour of PR.
Campaigners in the Labour party have been arguing for PR for years, but the rise of five-party politics in the UK has made the case against FPTP stronger. Last week there were claims that FPTP was turning the local elections into “a random lottery” because some results, in terms of seat numbers, were wildly unrepresentative of the way people actually voted.
Ed Baldwin, the CWU delegate who proposed the motion, said:
First past the post no longer reflects those we represent and is producing results that do not match the will of the people.
The Labour government has already accepted it is broken by scrapping it for mayoral elections. If it distorts democracy there, then it distorts democracy at Westminster too.
This motion is a demand for fairness, representation and a democracy that works, and CWU has never been afraid to challenge systems that fail working people. It is time for our union to lead and help make proportional representation a reality.
Other Labour-affiliated unions that have backed PR included Unison, Unite, Usdaw, TSSA, Aslef, and the FBU. In 2022 the Labour conference also voted overwhelmingly in favour of a motion backing PR, but Keir Starmer and the Labour leadership ignored it.
Nancy Platts, coordinator for the Politics for the Many campaign, said:
Trade unionists have always been at the forefront of the fight for fairness and democracy, which is why CWU delegates voted decisively to reject the failing first past the post system and back electoral reform.
It is clear that we cannot continue with a voting system that ignores millions of votes and is producing more and more chaotic results that do not represent the way people have voted.
