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How Rayner, Streeting and Burnham weakened PM in 12 hours of political drama
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How Rayner, Streeting and Burnham weakened PM in 12 hours of political drama

BBC Politics · May 15, 2026, 8:21 PM · Also reported by 3 other sources

Key takeaways

  • Andy Burnham spent much of the day attempting to persuade MP Josh Simons, once a staunch ally of Sir Keir, to sacrifice his parliamentary career to help save Labour.
  • Wes Streeting was in Parliament with his closest advisers mulling whether he should quit the cabinet job as health secretary that he had coveted for years.
  • And that afternoon Angela Rayner slipped into a London hotel suite to secretly pre-record a TV interview about resolving her tax affairs with HMRC.

Why this matters: political developments that affect policy direction and public trust.

Joe Pike Politics investigations correspondent PA Media and Reuters No leadership contest has been launched, but some Labour politicians look to have been making moves towards the top spot On Wednesday, as Sir Keir Starmer stood in the House of Lords and watched the King read out the government's plan for the coming year, the prime minister's three biggest rivals within Labour were preparing their next moves.

Andy Burnham spent much of the day attempting to persuade MP Josh Simons, once a staunch ally of Sir Keir, to sacrifice his parliamentary career to help save Labour.

Wes Streeting was in Parliament with his closest advisers mulling whether he should quit the cabinet job as health secretary that he had coveted for years.

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