Disgraced former Deputy PM Angela Rayner has struck a deal to return to power if Andy Burnham topples Keir Starmer, just months after her stamp duty scandal.
Rayner resigned over a stamp duty scandal (Image: Getty)
Disgraced former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has struck a deal to return to power if Andy Burnham topples Sir Keir Starmer, it has been claimed. It comes just months after she was sensationally forced out of the Cabinet following revelations she underpaid stamp duty on her £800,000 Hove flat.
Now she is set to make a comeback after close allies revealed she is prepared to give up her own ambitions for the top job and back Mr Burnham instead. In return she would be handed back her role as Deputy Prime Minister, as well as a plum Cabinet position.
The Manchester Mayor, who has long harboured ambitions to become Prime Minister, announced he would seek permission to run in the upcoming Gorton and Denton by-election. Should he succeed in retaining the Labour-held seat, Mr Burnham is expected to mount a challenge to topple the embattled PM.
Ms Rayner is backing the Mayor’s bid to run for office, just four months after the stamp duty scandal. Serving as Housing Secretary at the time, she was forced to resign.
Sir Keir has repeatedly said he respects his former Deputy, and has recently suggested he wants his “friend Angie” back around the Cabinet table. Ms Rayner often tops polls of Labour members, and has been seen as a serious challenger for the top job herself should Sir Keir be toppled by his own team.
But she now appears to have dropped her ambition, backing Mr Burnham at a recent event by announcing: “We need our best players on the field” to support calls for him to be allowed to stand.
Mr Burnham faces a major obstacle – the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, from which he must seek permission to stand.
Burnham seeks permission for by-election bid (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir could seek to block his leadership rival from standing, but doing so would trigger fury from his backbenchers – including Ms Rayner. Several of his own top brass have announced their support for Mr Burnham’s candidacy.
Even Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, suggested he would back the campaign, going so far as to say he would “knock on doors” for his fellow Mayor.
If he were selected, Mr Burnham would trigger a by-election himself, potentially costing Manchester taxpayers millions of pounds as they would be forced to vote on his replacement.
Writing on social media on Saturday, he said: “I have today written to the Chair of Labour’s National Executive Committee seeking permission to enter the selection process for a candidate for the forthcoming Gorton and Denton by-election.”
He added: “I see this by-election as the front line of that fight for the Manchester way and I feel I owe it to a city which has given me so much to lead it from the front, despite the risks involved.”
