Overview
- The Telegraph reported that MPs close to Health Secretary Wes Streeting urged Angela Rayner to consider a joint leadership slate.
- A spokesman for Streeting dismissed the report as a “silly season” fabrication and said his focus is on the NHS and averting doctors’ strikes.
- A source close to Rayner said “there is no vacancy and there is no pact,” adding she “will not be played like a pawn.”
- Several party figures, including a major trade union leader, told reporters such a pact was unlikely, though one Rayner supporter described “huge overtures.”
- Rayner resigned from the Cabinet in September over her tax affairs and sits on the backbenches, while Streeting recently denied plotting to unseat Sir Keir Starmer after anonymous briefings.