What a paradox. Angela Rayner had long been poised to seize Keir Starmer’s crown, and yet the moment she left the government, the speculation about his future intensified.
She was too canny a politician to show overt disloyalty, and had even taken in recent months to saying that she didn’t want to be prime minister, but she was always the one that Starmer feared. All prime ministers worry about their job security more than outsiders think is justified. They imagine that they are going to be toppled at any moment, even when there are no outward signs of a threat to their position.
