Angela Rayner says Starmer should ‘reflect on’ stepping aside after HMRC clears her over tax affairs - UK politics live

Good morning. Today it looks as though the phoney Labour leadership contest. has been bubbling away at least since Sunday may finally turn into a real one. Westminster is braced for Wes Streeting. the health secretary, to announce that he is standing – although journalists are not yet 100% certain it will happen.

This morning, in a joint scoop, the Guardian and ITV had news that could affect Streeting’s calculations. As Pippa Crerar reports. Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM, has been has been cleared by HMRC of deliberate wrongdoing or carelessness over her tax affairs.

In an interview with Pippa, Rayner said that she would not challenge Starmer herself. But she said she wanted to see change, “action, not just words”. Asked whether Starmer should step aside, she said: “Keir will have to reflect on that.”

If there is a contest, Rayner did not rule out being a candidate,. she also hinted that she might back someone else. She said:

double quotation mark I’ll play my part in doing everything we possibly can to deliver the change. because it’s not a personal ambition, I know the difference it makes. Whatever role I can play, I will keep pushing. pushing hard because I want the people out there at the moment who are really struggling … to know that I’m putting all my energy into fighting for them.

Rayner has hinted that she would be happy for Andy Burnham (who. like her, is on Labour’s soft-left wing – Streeting is identified with Labour’s right) to replace Starmer. But Burnham could only be a candidate if he can find a seat. return to the Commons in a byelection. We are expecting to hear more on that soon. Burnham has cancelled his regular weekly appearance on Radio Manchester saying he needs to prioritise “discussions arising from last week’s local elections”.

We don’t know when the possible main announcements for today – from Streeting and Burnham – might happen. But here are the events that are in the diary.

9.30am: NHS England publishes its monthly performance figures. Normally Streeting, as health secretary, records a short clip for broadcasters when they come out.

After 10.30am: MPs resume the king’s speech debate, focusing on economic growth.

11.30am: Downing Street holds a lobby briefing.

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According to a story by David Maddox for the Independent. “as many as five other ministers, all allies of [Wes] Streeting, are on a resignation watchlist”.

But so far this morning there is no sign yet of Streeting launching his much-talked-about leadership bid.

Wes Streeting is deeply unpopular on the Labour left. This morning Richard Burgon. secretary of the Socialist Campaign Group in parliament, has posted a message saying that, if Streeting does launch a leadership bid today, he will be ignoring the wishes of Labour-affiliated trade unions. Burgon said:

double quotation mark Wes Streeting launching a leadership bid today would be deliberately flying in the face of this joint statement from all of Labour’s affiliated trade unions for an orderly transition.

Dismissing our trade unions like this will not help us learn the lessons or help us stop Farage

In an interview with BBC Radio Scotland this morning. Douglas Alexander, the Scottish secretary, stressed that, for all the speculation, Wes Streeting has still not triggered a leadership contest.

double quotation mark The prime minister has my support, I am a member of the cabinet.

I think for all of the speculation, for all of the headlines, it’s worth holding on to the fact we’ve seen twists. turns in this drama even in recent days. There’s a process by which a challenge to the Labour party leadership can be conducted,. that process simply hasn’t been triggered this morning.

Alexander may have been reflecting scepticism in No 10 about whether Wes Streeting really does have the support of 80 Labour MPs. he will need to get a contest started. In a report for the Financial Times, Jim Pickard, Lucy Fisher and George Parker also pick up these doubts. They say:

double quotation mark One cabinet minister loyal to Starmer claimed Streeting did not have the numbers. “All the effort now has to go into stopping him getting to 81 names. he’s currently only on about 30,” they said. “The herd is not as big as he thinks it is.”

One former Tory Downing Street adviser said MPs could be notoriously unreliable in chaotic leadership situations. “If it was me I’d want 130 names to be sure of 81,” he added.

Last night Tony Diver from the Telegraph claimed that Streeting’s allies were telling Labour MPs they could nominate Streeting. then switch support to another candidate.

In response. the Labour MP Luke Akehurst, a member of Labour’s national executive committee, pointed out that this is not correct. An MP who nominates a candidate for leader can only withdraw their name to nominate someone else if the person they nominated originally withdraws.

(There is nothing to stop an MP nominating one candidate but then actually voting for another candidate. But. at the voting stage, the vote an MP carries no more weight than the vote of any other party member; it won’t make much difference. MPs have most power at the point when they can nominate someone to get them on the ballot.)

Tracy Brabin, the Labour mayor of West Yorkshire, was also on the Today programme this morning. She said she met Keir Starmer yesterday. had a “frank conversation” with him about how the government needed to do better. She said Labour would have to “escalate the pace of change”. She was rather non-committal about whether she wanted this to happen with Starmer remaining leader but, when asked if he should go, she said that currently there was no leadership contest. that she had “no horse in this race”.

She also summed up her message in a post on social media.

James Murray, the chief secretary to the Treasury, has been the No 10 voice on the airwaves this morning.

In an interview on the Today programme, he urged Labour colleagues to “step back” from supporting a leadership contest. He said:

double quotation mark I would say to all colleagues, take a deep breath. Take a step back.

Make sure that we recognise we’re less than two years into this parliament. Look at what we’ve done so far. Look at the benefits of the stability that we brought to government, make sure that we don’t go into a chaotic process of uncertainty,. make sure we focus on what people want us to be doing.

Asked about Wes Streeting, Murray said:

double quotation mark He is the health secretary,. I hope he is the health secretary by the end of the day.

The UK economy unexpectedly grew during the first full month of the Iran war. according to official figures, suggesting the Middle East conflict has not yet affected growth as much as feared, Tom Knowles reports.

Rachel Reeves, the chancellor, spoke to reporters this morning after the growth figures were released. She claimed that a Labour leadership contest would put economic recovery at risk. She said:

double quotation mark Labour MPs have got an important decision to make today, but the numbers show that the economy is growing. that when we entered this conflict [the Iran war], our economy was growing strongly because of the decisions that I have made as chancellor. We shouldn’t put that at risk.

In her interview with ITV. Angela Rayner, the former deputy PM, said she would not be making a pact with Andy Burnham to challenge Keir Starmer. “I’m not doing deals or anything like that,” she said.