'Starmer's whole cabal will regret what they did to her'

Rayner's allies believe her departure followed a campaign to remove her by the prime minister and Morgan McSweeney

- By DAVID MADDOX, POLITICAL EDITOR

Among those nearest to Angela Rayner there is genuine anger, even though they admit she made a mistake that cost her badly.

A source close to the now former deputy prime minister, who resigned amid a scandal over her tax affairs, told The Independent: “Keir [Starmer], Morgan [McSweeney] and the whole cabal will regret what they did to her. They won a battle today, but this is going to hurt them. They are actually an existential problem for the Labour Party.”

While the prime minister had outwardly supported Rayner when she admitted to not having paid £40,000 of stamp duty on a flat in Brighton, there was a feeling that he was just waiting for the ethics adviser “to give him an excuse” to wield the knife. “There has been a ‘get Angela’ campaign running for weeks now,” said one ally of the former deputy leader. “And now they have got her.”

The extent of the reshuffle that followed appeared to confirm that her departure had been planned as part of a much bigger reshape of a failing government that would no longer incorporate a senior figure from the left.