Times article suggesting Rayner is a shoo-in for PM within months - please god no

[teawamutu]

Hopefully this link will work:
https://www.thetimes.com/article/27184a3f-e513-49a6-871d-bc8c71fa7804?shareToken=1740daa659156e3945fd8e025dbf6d22

She signed every anti-women motion. She said she'd save a bench in the Commons for Liam/’Lily' fucking Madigan. She's pointlessly fighty and I'd bet perfectly happy to try to change the Equality Act. At the very least she'd allow FWS to be undermined.

Talk me down and explain why this either won't happen or won't be a disaster, wise FWRers, please!

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/feb/09/revealed-rayner-for-leader-site-briefly-went-live-in-january

"King of the North" is what London based hacks call him, they gush at his % vote share & gloss over the fact that most people in Grtr Manchester don't vote in Mayoral elections at all. His vote share's about the same as the majority that rejected having a Manchester Mayor but the wheeze was nonetheless inflicted on the area by Westminster pollies.

He wasn't an impressive MP or Minister, putting him back in Westminster would be the Peter Principle in action again. Leave him up North with his own, er, unfortunate associates, & let him do things he can manage, like negotiating cheaper local buses.We don't need any more over-ambitious also-rans in the PLP.

Although I am sure we wont hear about what really happens but Starmer is due to have a meeting with Labour MPs around now.

In the meantime, Full list of cabinet ministers publicly backing Keir Starmer https://leftfootforward.org/2026/02/full-list-of-cabinet-ministers-publicly-backing-keir-starmer/ which doesn't mean they aren't plotting behind his back.

I’m not saying he wouldn’t be-but why are people so sure Burnham would be good at the job? He’s tried to get there before and failed. What has he actually done that’s convinced you about him?

Rosie’s tweets on the proceeds are a good read 😀

I sometimes think once back in Westminster he would return to the blairist/mandelson/Sweeny fold and back to blue labour ways, now those lot are gone maybe he wouldn't?

Wes is publishing WhatsApp’s with Mandelson?

https://x.com/bethrigby/status/2020945265222647838?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

Full list here https://x.com/bethrigby/status/2020959615740150102?s=46&t=A2fpFNgDRyXF2d6ye97wEA

Interesting but not damning. Reads as colleagues really. Bit on recognising Palestine was interesting too!

So much is made of Rayner’s background but it doesn’t seem to make any impact on her politics re women and gender etc. She’s as happy as any privileged, Oxbridge type woman to throw ordinary women under the bus. It’s quite Tory of her, so maybe I can call her scum? Being facetious obviously.

Details please? And yes, you can call her scum if you briefly lose your temper at a non public event and she’s done something scummy.

21at October 2020. She said it in the House of Commons. Hardly a non public event.

Name calling is always destructive and unedifying, even when you lose your temper, and especially if you are someone who gets wound up and angry very quickly. You can feel anger and a sense of injustice without having to resort to using language like that, especially when you are in high public office.

I liked Streeting's article in the Guardian today:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/feb/09/peter-mandelson-wes-streeting-vetting-moral-seriousness

I thought it was a load of bullshit.

What evidence does he have the Jess Phillips would have stopped the decision to employ Mandelson? Shes being following party orders regarding the rape gangs for the last 18 months.

If he's so mindful of the failings in healthcare, is he's going to put a stop to giving girls PB for a non existing condition?

What is it about a working class not university educated woman that means a single intemperate word she has apologised for makes her unsuitable for high office when, for example Nigel Farage is still tipped for prime minister? Despite bullying accusations, proven lies in campaigning, uninvestigated financial deals with Russia….

I certainly don't rate Nigel Farage for PM.

Regarding Raynor, on the contrary I'd say just because she is a female non university educated woman does not necessarily mean she'd also make a good PM.

You obviously rate her. Can you explain why? And can you honestly see her appealing to a wide section of the electorate and gaining their confidence?

If it were a choice between AR and NF then I would be fully convinced the universe has decided to play a joke on us.

I don’t dislike her because of her background - in fact her background is what made me give her a chance. I dislike her because of her actions and behaviour. Tbh she is proof that it doesn’t matter what your background is once you get the glint of political power in your eye

I feel slightly sorry for Streeting and anyone else who is being tainted-by-vague-association with Mandy. Given his history as the architect of New Labour plus his ongoing position (until very recently) as a powerful party grandee, I should imagine he was someone you didn't want to get on the wrong side of, even if you privately thought he was dodgier than a nine-bob note.

If you're going to disqualify people on the basis of some connection to Mandelson, that will knock out almost every senior figure in Labour.

Except for the Corbyn people, but they've got their own dodgy associations, much as some FWR posters are allergic to these being mentioned.

Most prospective PMs don’t have a huge and very late tax bill that they tried to pretend wasn’t due first a start.

Being rather bigoted and unpleasant about large swathes of the electorate is not really conducive either.

I don't think she'll ever get that tax bill past the electorate.

The trouble for him is the 200 plus children he wants to experiment on while 'learning lessons'. And the mixed messages, like meeting the Darlington nurses and being all sympathetic, and then doing fuck all in terms of following up with the SCJ. Like Starmer, you're left wondering what actually goes on in his head and what to believe.

And the 'I don't want to do it, and I feel really bad about it, (but I'm going to do it anyway)' about the Streeting Experment waffling he's doing alongside Phillipson's 'I need to think about this really carefully (for a few decades, which functionally keeps the status quo how we like it) about guidance that doesn't affect the actual law at all while I try and overturn it in courts' waffle. They're neither of them coming out well, or looking like decisive, sorted leadership types.

The tax issue is still being investigated by HMRC isn’t it?

Who was she bigoted and unpleasant about?

Listening now to Andy Burnham's speech earlier at the Resolution Foundation.

For a man who's a very good communicator - maybe the best in Labour - good grief, he has a tendency to lapse into word salad when he's trying to demonstrate how "serious" he is.

Nice cardy though. I appreciate his commitment to casual knitwear.