Angela Rayner has been frozen out of Andy Burnham’s inner circle despite securing a prominent role in his new Cabinet, it has been claimed.
Several senior Whitehall sources said Rayner tried to slow Burnham’s return to Parliament as she still harboured leadership ambitions of her own, The i Paper has been told.
Supporters of Rayner, who returned to frontline politics as Burnham’s Housing Secretary on Monday, strongly deny the claims, pointing to her support for him when he was blocked from running in the Gorton and Denton by-election in January.
Shorts
No 10 declined to comment. Rayner’s allies dismissed any suggestions of a rift as “silly rumours”, and stressed that she has been given a Cabinet role to deliver on his key priorities.
