In the wake of Angela Rayner’s dramatic resignation, the Labour Party finds itself at a crossroads, grappling with internal divisions, accusations of centralization, and a deputy leadership contest that could reshape its future. The events of the past week have not just altered the party’s top ranks, but have also ignited a broader debate about the direction and culture of Labour under Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
Angela Rayner, once seen as a linchpin between the party’s grassroots and its leadership, stepped down as housing secretary, deputy leader, and deputy prime minister after an independent ethics adviser found she had breached the ministerial code. The breach? Mistakenly underpaying stamp duty on a seaside flat she purchased in May 2025. While the adviser concluded she had acted in “good faith,” the responsibility for accurate tax reporting, as the report noted, “rests ultimately with themselves.”
Her departure triggered a swift Cabinet reshuffle by Starmer, who urged his new team to “go up a gear” in policy delivery. According to BBC, Defence Secretary John Healey defended the Prime Minister’s “clear, swift, fair action,” emphasizing, “Our Government will miss Angela Rayner. She’s not been a victim. She’s been under a lot of pressure and Andy Burnham’s right about that. But she’s been an inspiration to many, particularly working-class women.” Healey added, “Any government is stronger with Angela Rayner but we’ve got a good new team in place and that’s our job.”
Yet, the reshuffle has sparked fierce debate within the party. Andy Burnham, the outspoken Mayor of Greater Manchester, voiced concerns about the new Cabinet’s “balance” and accused the leadership of being too “London-centric.” On the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Burnham argued, “It needs to be a bit of a reset for the government. I wish the new cabinet and the ministerial team well, and I’m here to support them and work with them. But I do think there needs to be a reset of the way we’re doing things.” He also called for the deputy leadership contest to be an opportunity to “discuss some of these things,” advocating for a party management style “less factional and more pluralistic.”
Burnham’s criticisms didn’t end there. He condemned the stripping of the Labour whip from MPs who rebelled against government welfare reforms earlier in the year, saying, “I see good MPs losing the whip, people like Rachel Maskell. That doesn’t seem fair to me, it didn’t happen in the governments I was in – Gordon Brown’s government or Tony Blair’s government. We need a different style here so that everyone’s included and pulling together.”
The regional dimension of the dispute has also come to the fore. Burnham, reflecting the frustrations of many in northern England, expressed hope that Rayner’s replacement would come from outside London. “Obviously, I’m biased, but somebody from these parts I think would be great. Louise Haigh, possibly Lucy Powell, who I think did a brilliant job in government,” he said, emphasizing the need to “counter the London-centricity” of the current leadership. Both Haigh and Powell have faced their own controversies—Haigh resigned as transport secretary last year after a past fraud conviction came to light, while Powell was sacked in the recent reshuffle, a move that has drawn particular ire from MPs in the North West, where eight frontbenchers lost their jobs.
The contest for deputy leader is already shaping up to be a pivotal moment for Labour. Dame Emily Thornberry, chairwoman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, has confirmed she is considering a run, telling the BBC, “I’m thinking about it. It’s really a question of what can I bring to it. I hear what is said about the deputy leader should come from Manchester, and obviously the mayor of Manchester would say that. I’m sure that people would say they should come from Wales or from Scotland or – what’s important is what you bring. Do you have the strength? Do you have the experience? Can you actually make a difference? And I’ve got to kind of think about that.”
Thornberry has also voiced her own criticisms of the party’s current trajectory, accusing No.10 of “not listening to people of goodwill who want the party to succeed.” She warned, “We’ve gone from having the fantastic gift from the British public of having a huge majority to now being at 20% in the polls, and we will have in the next election the biggest fight of our lives against Farage. The last thing we want is to go from a position where we thought we were going to be in for two terms, to hand our country over to Farage.”
The Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) was expected to meet on September 8, 2025, to decide the process for the deputy leadership contest. Meanwhile, speculation is swirling around other potential candidates, including David Lammy, who was recently appointed Deputy Prime Minister. However, John Healey was quick to clarify that “they’re two separate jobs, two very important jobs. The deputy leader of the Labour Party is an important job and an important vote for Labour Party members.”
Not all reactions have been supportive. Some Labour backbenchers have been highly critical of the reshuffle, with one telling the PA news agency, “Angela made an unbalanced Cabinet look slightly more balanced. But it was almost entirely skin deep and cosmetic. On literally every major issue she has tucked in behind them. A few leaked memos do not a left-wing policy agenda, make. Now even the semblance of that illusion is gone. Maybe for the party overall that’s for the better in the long run.” Another went so far as to claim, “Starmer just signed his own death warrant” and “has to be gone before (Christmas).”
Liverpool Riverside MP Kim Johnson was equally scathing, likening the reshuffle to “moving deck chairs on Titanic” and accusing the leadership of “creating a London elite.” She added, “The Labour Party is a broad church, this is certainly not represented with this reshuffle.”
Beyond the immediate political fallout, Angela Rayner now faces opposition pressure to reject a severance payment of up to £16,876, to which she is entitled under existing rules for departing ministers. New Labour regulations coming into force in October 2025 will allow the Prime Minister to deny such payments to anyone found to have committed a “serious breach” of the ministerial code. However, since Rayner’s resignation predates these changes, the decision remains hers alone.
All of this comes at a time when Labour is under threat from the rising popularity of Reform UK, with the deputy leadership contest widely seen as a referendum on Starmer’s leadership. Both Thornberry and Burnham have urged the party to listen more to backbenchers and grassroots members, warning that failure to do so could deepen existing rifts and jeopardize Labour’s prospects in the next general election.
As the party conference looms and the NEC prepares to chart a path forward, Labour’s internal debates are set to continue. Whether the party can heal its divisions and present a united front to voters remains to be seen—but one thing is certain: the contest for deputy leader has become about far more than just filling a vacancy. It’s a test of Labour’s identity, unity, and readiness for the battles ahead.
