Inside Politics: Angela Rayner allies ‘urging her to run’ against Keir Starmer

The deputy leader’s supporters are said to be preparing a leadership challenge if Labour loses the big by-election in Batley and Spen, writes Adam Forrest

(PA)

Harry’s back. He and Prince William will be “putting on a brave face” for the unveiling of the Diana statue today, say royal watchers – though the pair are expected to meet for clear-the-air talks. Looks like Keir Starmer will be “putting on a brave face” for the by-election in Batley and Spen, with Labour braced for a damaging defeat. Starmer may need clear-the-air talks with Angela Rayner. His deputy is said to be “on manoeuvres” for a possible leadership challenge. Meanwhile Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, has suggested he’d like to return to Westminster. Could the king of the north be Labour’s crown prince in waiting?

Inside the bubble

Policy correspondent Jon Stone on what to look out for today:

Voters are heading to the polls to elect a new MP for Batley and Spen. Labour can count on doing well in one respect in this by-election: expectation management. With a previous poll suggesting the party will lose, holding the seat would now be a surprise and a huge relief for Keir Starmer. Elsewhere, chancellor Rishi Sunak is giving his first Mansion House speech to City financiers.

Daily briefing

ET TU, COMRADE? Supporters of Angela Rayner are said to be preparing a leadership challenge if Labour loses the by-election in Batley and Spen today. Keir Starmer’s team fears Team Rayner is “on manoeuvres”, according to The Times. Hard-left MPs told the newspaper they’ve already been approached by Rayner allies. An ally of Rayner said: “There’s definitely been people sounding out the possibility – she’d easily reach 40 nominations – and urging her to run if the worst happens in Batley.” Rayner last night tweeted that the leadership bid was “news to me”. Labour insiders have admitted it was looking “very, very difficult” to win in the area. A YouGov survey found 69 per cent of members would prefer the Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham as leader. Right on cue, the New Statesman has an in-depth interview with Burnham in which he says he would return to parliament – but not yet. “The answer is, I would [go back], but it’s not any time soon.”

THEY FOUGHT THE LAW, BUT THE LAW WON: Unionists are licking their wounds and preparing their next move in the fight against the hated protocol. A High Court judge in Belfast ruled the protocol lawful – rejecting the unionists bid to win a judicial review of Brexit arrangements. The court said the Withdrawal Agreement Act overrides parts of the Acts of Union. They unionists did not like that. At all. DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson said it was so “politically significant” it could risk the “the future stability of political institutions”. Meanwhile, the EU has finally agreed to delay a ban on chilled meat imports from GB to NI. But EU Commission chief Maros Sefcovic said a three-month extension was “not issuing a blank cheque”. It comes as Rishi Sunak prepares to announce his post-Brexit plan to protect Britain’s dominance in the financial sector today. The chancellor will unveil a 40-page roadmap when he makes his Mansion House address.

TONGUES WAGGING: Matt Hancock’s political future appears in doubt. He is facing calls to quit as an MP and threats of deselection from his own local party in Suffolk. Ian Houlder, a Tory councillor on West Suffolk council, said he’d written to his local association chair about Hancock’s “contemptible” conduct. He said: “Think of people who haven’t been able to bury their mothers or fathers … There he is, just groping away, hands everywhere, tongues everywhere, out of his bubble.” Terry Clements, another Tory councillor, said Hancock would “find it impossible to carry on” as a MP. Meanwhile, health minister Lord Bethell is facing calls to be sacked, after meetings with companies handed Covid contracts worth more than £1bn went undeclared for more than a year. He failed to declare 27 meetings in April last year, says The Mirror. Officials blamed an “admin error”. Labour’s Angela Rayner fumed: “Lord Bethell must be sacked immediately and this racket must end now.”

BURSTING BUBBLES: Gavin Williamson has promised he will get rid of the school “bubble” system in England as soon as possible, as increasing numbers of pupils are sent home to isolate. The education secretary told MPs the system could be ditched on 19 July. But his Labour shadow Kate Green said changing rules for five days at the end of term would only create “more chaos for schools and families”. Elsewhere in the Commons, Keir Starmer challenged Boris Johnson over his failure to sack Matt Hancock. “It’s one rule for them, another rule for everyone else,” said Starmer – who brought up the case of Ollie Bibby, who wasn’t allowed to see his family when he died of leukaemia in hospital in May (only a day before Hancock’s rule-breaking kiss). In response, the PM said he wasn’t interested in “stuff going on in the Westminster bubble”. Ollie Bibby’s mother later said she felt Johnson “dismissed” what happened to her family.

FEEL THE FEAR AND DO IT ANYWAY: The government has resisted calls from Tory backbenchers to stop releasing daily Covid figures. Some MPs say the onslaught of statistics create an unhealthy “fear factor” in the public imagination. Ex-Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith claimed the daily updates were making people “irrational” with worry. “Publishing these figures every day makes it seem like nothing else matters. They should stop it – and do it now.” However, energy minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said the government would continue to release daily figures (though she politely suggested that the figures didn’t need to be “published on the front page of a newspaper every day”). It comes as the NHS is put on alert for a vaccine booster programme before the winter. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has issued advice saying the over-50s and anyone who qualifies for a flu jab should get a third dose.

STRANGERS IN A STRANGE LAND: So the deadline for EU citizens applying for settled status has come and gone. Rejecting pleas for an extension, Boris Johnson told EU citizens who hadn’t applied to “get on with it” on Wednesday. The SNP’s Ian Blackford said the huge backlog of delayed decisions meant Johnson’s “unequivocal guarantee” that EU nationals living here would have the “right to live and remain” could no longer be upheld. “Overnight thousands of our friends and neighbours could become illegal immigrants,” he added. The PM said delayed applications were being processed “as fast as we possibly can”. It comes as England fans were told not to travel to Rome to watch the quarter final against Ukraine on Saturday. “The ask is to watch from home and to cheer on the team,” said minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan. The Ukrainian PM and his ministers all wore the national team’s colours for a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Let’s hope it doesn’t give Johnson any ideas.

On the record

“If there was a moment where that was right, then I’ve indicated that I would be prepared to go back.”

Andy Burnham on getting back to Westminster.

From the Twitterati

“Miscalculation by Johnson – both to answer a question about Ollie and his family by referencing the ‘Westminster bubble’ and to claim the Hancock story was a SW1 obsession. It wasn’t, it has cut through.”

Sky News’ Beth Rigby on the PM’s miscalculation…

“Johnson’s tone is all wrong, insincere, callous, by answering “Westminster bubble” when Starmer raised the case of a man with leukaemia who died unable to see his family while a health secretary …was breaching social distancing.”

…and The Mirror’s Kevin Maguire found it callous.

Essential reading

Andrew Grice, The Independent: Boris Johnson might be popular now, but voters do care about sleaze

Benali Hamdache, The Independent: The ‘hostile environment’ for EU citizens will fuel racism

Stephen Bush, New Statesman: Andy Burnham – ‘I’m prepared to go back, but as something different’

Katy Balls, The Spectator: What will life look like on 19 July?

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