Angela Rayner has hit out at Sir Keir Starmer in her first intervention since the Prime Minister resigned. The former deputy prime minister criticised his record in government as one of “defending the status quo” in a speech to the Left-wing New Economics Foundation think tank last night.

Ms Rayner, who quit his Cabinet in a row over her tax affairs, also warned that Labour would not defeat Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK “with caution”.

And she gave her backing to incoming prime minister Andy Burnham’s plans to move power out of Westminster and into town halls around the country.