Rayner sacking sparks fresh row over Labour election disaster

LABOUR chair Angela Rayner has been sacked by Keir Starmer as a row erupted over the party’s disastrous performance in Thursday’s bumper set of elections.

Labour received a drubbing in the local elections in England, losing control of a host of councils and suffering defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson’s Conservatives in the Hartlepool by-election - the first time the constituency has gone blue since its inception in the 1970s.

The sacking signals cracks at the top of the party, with rows over who was to blame for the election strategy.

On Friday leader Sir Keir Starmer said he was “bitterly disappointed” with the results and vowed to take responsibility and to fix Labour’s election woes.

But former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said the decision to remove Ms Rayner - a former social care worker who hails from Stockport - as Labour’s chairman and campaigns chief was a “cowardly avoidance of responsibility”.

Mr McDonnell tweeted: “Keir Starmer said yesterday that he took full responsibility for the election result in Hartlepool and other losses. Instead today he’s scapegoating everyone apart from himself. This isn’t leadership, it’s a cowardly avoidance of responsibility.”

As well as the shock defeat in Hartlepool, Labour had a net loss of six councils and more than 200 seats in the local elections, losing control of the likes of Harrow, Essex, and Plymouth local authorities in the process.

The party also failed to topple Tory mayoral incumbents in the Tees Valley and the West Midlands, although did produce a surprise victory in the West of England mayoral contest and comfortable wins in Greater Manchester and the Liverpool City Region.

Andy Burnham took a strong stance against the Conservative UK Government at the start of the city’s second coronavirus wave last year, and secured 67 per cent of the vote.

The popular politician, dubbed the “king of the North” by some supporters, said he had not ruled out becoming Labour leader in the “distant future”.

Asked whether he wanted to lead the party following reports he would be a frontrunner to replace Sir Keir Starmer, Mr Burnham said: “I’ve been elected as mayor of Greater Manchester – that is where my focus is..”

Mr Burnham said his party had “lost an emotional connection” with voters in some parts of the country, following their crushing defeat in Hartlepool’s by-election and the loss of several councils in England.

He said: “They have lost an emotional connection with parts of the country that is going to take a lot of work to get back.”

The party also secured victory in the West of England mayoral contest, with Dan Norris winning the position.