The icy silence: Angela Rayner gives Sir Keir Starmer the cold shoulder after he fired her MP partner for joining the railroad
- Deputy Labor leader Angela Rayner refused to support decision to fire Sam Tarry
- Mrs Rayner and the ex-Shadow Secretary of Transport are said to be a couple
- Sir Keir Starmer Says Tarry Was Fired For Giving Unscheduled Media Interviews
- But Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham says leader ‘must be careful’
- ‘We cannot be a party to undermine people who are fighting to protect their income’
Angela Rayner last night Sir refused . to support Keir Starmerthe decision to sack her Labor MP partner – which the party leader defied by joining a strike pole.
Sir Keir said he removed Sam Tarry as his shadow… minister of transport for giving unauthorized media interviews and making up “policy on the leg” while speaking to the RMT picket on Wednesday.
Miss Rayner, the deputy Labor leader, who reportedly started a relationship with Mr Tarry earlier this year, has not commented on the move, which has outraged the left wing of the party and major trade unions.
Last night she declined to comment amid Labour’s internal chaos, though she tweeted calls for Tory ministers to end the strikes and address the government’s plight. NHS.
Miss Rayner previously raised eyebrows when she supported last month’s railway strikes after shadow ministers were warned to stay away.
Lips Are Sealed: Deputy Labor Leader Angela Rayner With Leader Sir Keir Starmer
But Sir Keir broke his own silence on the controversial firing, saying: “Sam Tarry was fired for taking himself in the media without permission and then making up hoof policy, and that cannot be tolerated because we have collective responsibility.
‘The Labor Party will always be on the side of the working people, but we need collective responsibility.’
Two other Labor front benchers – private parliamentary secretaries Paula Barker and Kate Osborne – also joined the picket lines but were not fired. Sir Keir said that in the future the party will “take each case as it comes”.
His words are unlikely to appease left-wing Labor MPs and union leaders, the latter of whom are now on a “direct collision course” with the Labor party, Tarry said. Mick Whelan of Aslef, the train drivers’ union, said ‘maybe it’s time to recognize that the link is gone’ between unions and the Labor Party.
Firm stance: MP Sam Tarry stands by his decision to join yesterday’s picket line
Scotland’s trade union organizer Kevin Lindsay made a dramatic announcement last night that he is leaving Labour, urging Sir Keir to resign.
He wrote in a letter to the party: “I respect that Keir Starmer has been elected leader, but his policies make it impossible for Labor to return to power and that he must be immediately removed from office.”
On Wednesday, Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham said the party had “became irrelevant to ordinary working people” following recent events. Senior left-wing figures – including some of the 19 MPs who joined Mr Tarry across the country yesterday – also criticized Sir Keir for his alleged hypocrisy. Former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said, “This is a completely unnecessary quarrel invented at a time when the Tories are tearing themselves apart.”
Andy Burnham, the Labor mayor of Greater Manchester, said the party’s leadership should “be cautious” going forward.
“We can never be a party that undermines working people who are fighting to protect their income,” he told GB News.
“If we’re not careful, we could come across like this. People will have to fight to protect their income and Labor should support them.’