PM’s supporters say new Left-wing agenda would require fresh mandate
Daily Telegraph 06/02/26
A leadership coup by Angela Rayner would trigger a general election, Sir Keir Starmer’s allies warned rebels.
Supporters of the Prime Minister said on Friday that Ms Rayner’s Left-wing policy platform would require her to obtain a new mandate from the British people.
Ms Rayner, a former deputy prime minister, argued in 2022 that the Tories switching leaders from Boris Johnson to Liz Truss and then to Rishi Sunak required fresh elections.
Sir Keir is facing questions about his future as leader after his judgment was called into question over his appointment of Lord Mandelson as ambassador to the US last year, despite the peer’s friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.
Ms Rayner reportedly told friends she had warned Sir Keir not to appoint Lord Mandelson because of the public evidence of his friendship with the paedophile.
Some Labour MPs have told The Telegraph that Sir Keir has three weeks to save his job ahead of a looming by-election, while others branded him a “zombie PM”.
While Ms Rayner has indicated that she would be ready to run if a leadership contest were triggered, critics have argued that any new prime minister would not have a personal mandate from the electorate and therefore should trigger a vote.
One Labour figure who has served on Sir Keir’s front bench told The Telegraph: “Presumably Angela Rayner, if she got elected, would have a completely different agenda. If you come in with a completely different agenda then the country legitimately says, ‘We didn’t vote for this’. And so what are the grounds for refusing a general election?
“You can claim constitutional grounds, but in the world of frenzied media, of TikTok, YouTube and GB News, is it really sustainable? It doesn’t feel sustainable to me.”
Speaking about the prospect of a leadership switch, a Cabinet minister supportive of Sir Keir told The Telegraph: “The pressure for an election would be enormous.”
The Prime Minister is under pressure after he admitted he knew of Lord Mandelson’s friendship with Epstein before making the peer his ambassador to the US, though he has said he was lied to about the extent of the connection.
Lord Mandelson’s two homes were raided by police on Friday as part of an investigation into whether he broke the law by leaking sensitive government information to Epstein.
But Labour’s deep unpopularity could make some MPs think twice before moving against Sir Keir. Labour is on 19 per cent of the vote in average polls, far behind Reform on 29 per cent and practically level with the Conservatives on 18 per cent.
If those polls were replicated at the ballot box, scores of the 404 current Labour MPs would lose their seats, meaning many of their political careers would be at risk from a snap election. However, similar arguments deployed by allies of past prime ministers facing threats of being ousted have failed to hold.
Mr Johnson’s supporters warned rebels in 2022 that removing him from office would inevitably trigger a general election as they sought to protect him. His allies were ignored, with Mr Johnson forced from Downing Street by Tory MPs. No general election followed when first Ms Truss, and then Mr Sunak, took over.
The Tories have crowned Rishi Sunak without him saying a word about what he would do as PM. He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas. Nobody voted for this.
The public deserve their say on Britain’s future through a General Election. It’s time for a fresh start with Labour.
Ms Rayner called for an election in October 2022, when Mr Sunak was about to become prime minister. At the time, she wrote on X:
Nigel Farage said there should be an election if Sir Keir Starmer is forced out. His Reform UK party, which has led the opinion polls for a year, would be Labour’s main challenger in any ballot.
Mr Farage said: “If Keir Starmer goes, there should be an election. He’s a prime minister with a massive majority, but if he resigns, that project is over and we should be asked again.”
Ms Rayner also told broadcasters: “Labour thinks that we should be having a general election. I think everybody who I’ve spoken to in the public has said that we should be having a general election. There is no mandate now, the Conservatives have completely broken their promises, broken our economy, and now they want to see a general election.
“They can’t just keep on doling out prime ministers every month because they are in total chaos and they’ve lost control of the market and they haven’t got any ideas of how they are going to tackle the cost of living that people are facing.”
While Ms Rayner is said to want to fight any potential leadership contest, an unresolved investigation into her tax affairs threatens to complicate any such attempt. She is yet to settle with HMRC the controversy over £40,000 of unpaid stamp duty.
Ms Rayner was out and about in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne on Friday, meeting residents from Park Bridge. Last week, she reportedly had dinner at the home of Matthew Freud, the PR power-broker, at his townhouse in Notting Hill.
Officially, Labour does not need to call a vote if it switches leader and another general election is not required until 2029. According to Labour’s rule book, 20 per cent of the Labour Parliamentary Party – currently 81 MPs out of the party’s total of 404 – would need to back another candidate publicly to trigger a leadership election.
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