Tensions rise in Labour as Angela Rayner aide suspended

Keir Starmer’s overhaul of the Labour frontbench was a success on its own terms: the leader made lots of changes and got everyone appointed to the jobs he wanted them in. That sounds basic but, as he noted in his interview with The Times, reshuffles are notoriously difficult. On Saturday, the shake-up of the junior ranks was finalised. Justin Madders is now responsible for employment rights and protections, sitting across Jonathan Reynolds’ business team and Angela Rayner’s future of work one. All other developments can be found in our write-up of the new frontbench. As Rachel Wearmouth reported, it seems not all shadow ministers knew about their move before the list was released to the press. But clearly this reshuffle was a huge improvement on the effort in May.

Where it fell down was the wobbly start a week ago, when Rayner’s speech was overshadowed by news of a reshuffle and tensions between the leadership and deputy came to the fore again. The situation has now deteriorated further. According to The Sunday Times, Rayner’s communications chief has been suspended and placed under investigation on suspicion of a personal data breach involving another staffer. Rayner’s aide is accused of briefing the press about an internal row over political advisers, resulting in a now-deleted tweet by a Times journalist. He denies the allegation. Separately, it has also been reported by the Mail on Sunday that Starmer’s aides have discussed abolishing the post of deputy leader. This has been denied by Starmer’s spokesperson.

Many Labour insiders were stunned and confused by the news of the suspension over the weekend. Some who got in touch wondered: even if Rayner’s aide had briefed the journalist about the row – and LabourList’s understanding is that he did not – how would it be proved? To make matters worse, the aide has said he did not know about the imminent suspension until he was contacted by the Sunday Times, and is therefore reportedly talking to his trade union about what looks like a personal data breach – the same offence being levelled against him. Labour is not commenting on the story.

Over the weekend, we published an interview with Sharon Graham, Unite the Union’s new general secretary, marking her first 100 days in the post. She talked about cutting donations to Labour, her advice for Starmer, plans to use leverage “a lot more”, the union’s gender pay gap and the “difference between intervening in politics and driving it”. We also did our round-up of the Sunday shows as always, and noticed that Marr featured no Labour representative for the second successive week. Our understanding is that the party is offering spokespeople every week, which makes this omission a decision by the BBC.

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