Aiming high 'Rayner for leader' site proves race is on to succeed Starmer

Allies of leading candidates keen to tout credentials but others despair at options at top of Labour party

- Kiran Stacey

As Keir Starmer fights for his political life, the contest to replace him has already begun.

The revelation that a website claiming to launch a leadership campaign for Angela Rayner was briefly published last month has added to speculation about when the prime minister could depart and who might replace him.

As the phoney war has gathered pace in recent weeks, allies of Rayner and of the health secretary, Wes Streeting, have been taking aim at each other.

"Anyone that has any association with Peter Mandelson should be nowhere near government," Steve Wright, the general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union, told the BBC last Sunday, in an apparent swipe at Streeting, who has long been close to the former Labour politician and diplomat.

Allies of Streeting have hit back, accusing Rayner's friends of trying to distract from her own political difficulties, given that tax officials are yet to decide whether the former deputy prime minister underpaid stamp duty when purchasing a flat in Hove last year.