Angela Rayner to be sacked as Labour party chair and campaign co-ordinator
Deputy Labour leader Angela Rayner has reportedly been sacked as party chair and campaign co-ordinator, after a series of devastating defeats in the Thursday’s elections.
Multiple media outlets are reporting that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is blaming the party’s poor campaign on his deputy and has removed her from her posts in a move that will anger her allies on the left of the party.
She will remain in her position as deputy Labour leader, which is chosen by the membership, and is expected to be given another role.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Keir said he was taking full responsibility for the result of the elections – and he said we need to change. That means change how we run our campaigns in the future. Angela will continue to play a senior role in Keir’s team.”
One Starmer ally told The Times that Rayner was “not being sacked” and that “she is being used differently in the team because of her working class appeal”.
Labour lost the key Hartlepool by-election on thursday by a whopping 23 points, before losing the Tees Valley and West Midlands mayoral elections.
The three polls were considered to be key test for Starmer to see if he was on track to win back the Red Wall and other parts of the country where Labour will need to win next election to form government.
Labour also lost more than a hundred council seats to the Tories this weekend, including in traditional heartlands like Durham and Sunderland.
The party fared better in some other races in the south, winning the West of England and Cambridge and Peterborough mayoralties.
Starmer’s team called the loss in Hartlepool, a constituency it has always held, “shattering” and that it showed the party needed to “accelerate” the rate of change in the party.
Starmer said yesterday that he took full responsibility for the results and that he would set out his plans to reset the party over the next few days, which is expected to include a shadow cabinet reshuffle.
“I’m absolutely determined to do whatever is necessary to fix things and do whatever we can to make that case,” he said.
“I will set out what we need to do to reconnect the Labour Party with the voters that have cast their verdict on us particular in places like Hartlepool.
“We’ve changed as party, but we need to go further and we need to set out that strong case to the country.