Keir Starmer’s fate could be decided within weeks as Labour infighting ramps up ahead of a crunch by-election.
Rivals are jostling for position ahead of the Gorton & Denton contest on February 26, with warnings the PM faces being forced out if his party loses.
Angela Rayner hit the campaign trail yesterday, appearing prominently alongside Labour’s newly-selected candidate Angeliki Stogia.
The former deputy PM is said to have a £1million ‘war chest’ in place for a bid to succeed Sir Keir – who is so unpopular that MPs believe he will not even show his face in the constituency.
Reform has been talking up the vote as a referendum on the premier, and victory for either Nigel Farage’s party or the Greens could prove fatal.
Angela Rayner hit the campaign trail yesterday (pictured) at the unveiling of Labour’s newly-selected Gorton & Denton candidate Angeliki Stogia
Ms Stogia was flanked by Labour party chairwoman Anna Turley, currently deputy leader Lucy Powell and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds as her candidacy was announced at the event in the Greater Manchester constituency yesterday
Sir Keir is so unpopular that MPs believe he will not even show his face in the constituency
Meanwhile, the fallout from the decision to block Manchester mayor Andy Burnham from standing is still raging.
Mr Burnham pledged to ‘be there’ for the Labour candidate last night, but Liverpool mayor Steve Rotheram vented fury at ‘gutless’ briefing against his close ally.
In a vicious barb over the weekend, one Cabinet minister told The Times Mr Burnham had been handed his career ‘on a plate’ and was cross because people would not hail his ‘second coming’.
Ms Rayner has moved her stealth operation up a gear, with sources telling the Mail on Sunday that as well as securing funding commitments she has started to promise Cabinet jobs to her supporters.
An ally said Ms Rayner had been cultivating donors as part of a ‘personal charm offensive’ since she was forced to resign from the Cabinet five months ago over her underpayment of stamp duty.
The ally said: ‘She has received more than a million in firm pledges and is ready to go.’
Speaking during his Asian trip, Sir Keir declined to say whether he would be campaigning personally in the by-election in Greater Manchester.
‘We will set out our campaign plan when we have got the candidates in place,’ he said.
But one Labour MP told the MoS: ‘You won’t see him in Gorton. He’s toxic, and a Londoner to boot. He gets altitude sickness up there’.
Labour won the seat in Greater Manchester with more than half the vote – 18,555 – in 2024, with Nigel Farage’s Reform UK coming second on 5,142 votes, narrowly beating the Greens at 4,810.
The by-election has been triggered by the resignation of Andrew Gwynne on health grounds.
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said there were ‘just days to stop Reform’ on Friday as he unveiled councillor Hannah Spencer, a 34-year-old plumber, as the Green candidate on Friday.
Reform announced former academic and GB News presenter Matt Goodwin as its candidate earlier in the week.
Ms Stogia was flanked by Labour party chairwoman Anna Turley, currently deputy leader Lucy Powell and chief whip Jonathan Reynolds as her candidacy was announced at the event in the Greater Manchester constituency yesterday.
She told a crowd of Labour activists: ‘I am absolutely thrilled and excited, and I want to thank everyone who came to the hustings.
‘I am a proud Mancunian woman. I have walked the streets of this constituency.
‘This is about Manchester. Manchester is a city united, we are rejecting division. I am so looking forward to going out on the doorstep and winning this for Labour.’
Mr Burnham said Ms Stogia, a Manchester city councillor for Whalley Range, would do ‘a great job’.
In a post on X, he said: ‘Big congrats Angeliki! I know you will do a great job. I will be there for you whenever you need me.’
Ms Stogia told a crowd of Labour activists that the by-election would be ‘about Manchester’, despite Sir Keir’s fate potentially hanging on the result
But in a sign of the ongoing divisions within Labour after Mr Burnham was blocked from standing, Mr Rotheram criticised a culture of anonymous briefings from within Government.
He wrote on X that people within Government responsible for the whispering campaign against Mr Burnham were ‘gutless’.
Mr Rotheram added: ‘These anonymous attacks help nobody but our opponents.
‘For the sake of our party, please just stop.’
Mr Burnham has complained that ‘people just think they can say what they like to the media’ in the aftermath of his bid for the seat being blocked.
