Union chief calls for Angela Rayner to replace Keir Starmer or risk Labour defeat to Reform UK

Exclusive: TSSA general secretary wants Rayner to take over after Gorton byelection which she expects party to lose

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The head of a Labour-affiliated union has called for Angela Rayner to replace Keir Starmer, warning that Starmer risks leading the party into a heavy election defeat to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Maryam Eslamdoust, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), told the Guardian she wanted the former deputy prime minister to take charge after this month’s Gorton and Denton byelection.

Eslamdoust is the first union leader to call openly for Rayner to oust Starmer, adding to pressure on the prime minister at the end of his most difficult week in office.