Angela Rayner has issued her most forceful challenge yet to Sir Keir Starmer, warning Labour is “running out of time” to change course.
The former Deputy Prime Minister urged the party leadership to shift direction or risk an electoral wipeout.
Speaking on Tuesday evening, Ms Rayner accused Labour of becoming “the establishment” since coming to power.
“As a party and a movement, we cannot hide. We cannot just go through the motions in the face of decline,” she told activists..
“There’s no safe ground for us, and we’re running out of time. The change that people wanted to so desperately to see needs to be seen.”
Her comments mark the strongest public criticism of the Prime Minister from within Labour’s senior ranks.
Ms Rayner was speaking to Mainstream, a soft-Left pressure group linked to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham.
The organisation, founded last September amid persistently poor polling, has called for a “fundamental reset” of Labour policy, including the nationalisation of transport, water and energy.
The former Deputy Prime Minister urged the party leadership to shift direction or risk an electoral wipeout
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“It needs to be felt, and we have to show that it’s a Labour government that will deliver it,” Ms Rayner said.
She urged for unity within the party while also stressing the need to represent working people.
Ms Rayner said: “Our party is your party and we have to come together in the face of division of hate and make sure that the Labour Party represents the ordinary working people of this country.”
The former Housing Secretary acknowledged that voters increasingly see Labour as defending the status quo rather than challenging it.
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Her comments mark the strongest public criticism of the Prime Minister from within Labour’s senior ranks
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PAMs Rayner also hit out at the Government’s proposed migration reforms, branding them as “un-British”.
Without naming Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood directly, she attacked plans to extend the qualifying period for indefinite leave to remain from five to 10 years.
The changes would apply retrospectively to more than 2 million migrants who arrived between 2021 and 2024, with some social care workers facing waits of up to 15 years.
“If we suddenly change that, it pulls the rug from under those that have planned their lives and commitments, and they’re contributing to our economy and to our society,” she said.
Ms Rayner hit out at the Government’s proposed migration reforms, branding them as ‘un-British’
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She described the retrospective element as “not just bad policy, but a breach of trust.”
“We cannot talk about earning a settlement if we keep moving the goalposts because moving the goalposts undermines a sense of fair play. It’s un-British,” she added.
Ms Rayner, who left Cabinet in September after admitting that she had not paid enough stamp duty on the purchase of the £800,000 flat, is widely seen as a potential successor to Sir Keir if a leadership contest were triggered.
The Prime Minister faces growing pressure ahead of May’s local elections, with Labour expected to lose hundreds of council seats to Reform UK and the Greens.
Concerns have intensified following last month’s Gorton and Denton by-election, where the Greens stormed to victory in the traditionally safe Labour seat in Greater Manchester.
Ms Rayner has previously broken with the leadership, criticising the Prime Minister’s approach to welfare reform and the handling of documents linked to the Lord Mandelson scandal.