Sir Keir Starmer would lose in a leadership contest against former Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner, a bombshell new opinion poll has revealed.
More than half of the 1,013 Labour Party members surveyed - 52 per cent - would side with Ms Rayner, as opposed to just 33 per cent who lean towards Sir Keir - an astonishing 19 percentage point difference.
The poll also found that a total of four rivals - including Andy Burnham, Ed Miliband and Wes Streeting - would trump the Prime Minister.
More than half of Labour members want a new leader in No10 before the next election, a Survation poll for LabourList found.
Additionally, a plurality of members who had previously backed Sir Keir in the 2020 leadership race want a new leader - at 41 per cent to 40 per cent.
According to The Telegraph, the former Deputy Prime Minister is "getting her ducks in a row" for a leadership bid.
Ms Rayner resigned from her role in September after it had been revealed that she had underpaid stamp duty on her second home.
Earlier this month, it had been reported that Ms Rayner had joined soft-left group Tribune, something seen as a vehicle for any potential leadership challenge.
And just last week, the Ashton-Under-Lyne MP refused to rule out any potential challenge, defiantly stating that she had “not gone away”.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer would lose in a leadership contest against former Deputy PM Angela Rayner, a recent poll has shown
|PA
"The idea she’d want to be in the heart of the storm again right now is for the birds," one ally said.
"But if things kick off again after the May elections, then who knows."
It has been suggested that the threshold needed to mount a leadership contest has already been reached.
While Ms Rayner would trump Sir Keir if any such contest was to be held imminently, she still sits behind Mr Burnham.
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Angele Rayner reminded the public that she has 'not gone away' amid a potential leadership challenge
| PAMeanwhile, Sir Keir recently praised Mr Burnham for "doing a really good job as the Mayor of Manchester".
Mr Burnham himself also refused to rule out a potential leadership challenge against the Labour leader.
When pressed if he could categorically rule out any challenge, Mr Burnham told the BBC: "I am not going to sit here this morning and rule out what might or might not happen because I don’t know what the future will hold."
When asked again about any potential challenge, Mr Burnham said: "I am not in a position this morning to do that."
The conversation about Mr Burnham's potential ambitions blew up earlier in the week, when MP for Norwich South Clive Lewis said he would give up his seat so that the mayor, who sat in parliament between 2001 and 2017, could challenge Sir Keir.
Andy Burnham topped the poll among Labour members and also failed to rule out any potential leadership challenge
| PAThe Mayor of Greater Manchester had earlier said he "couldn’t have brought forward a plan of the kind I’ve brought forward today without being fully focused on my role as Mayor of Greater Manchester".
Mr Burnham told The Telegraph back in September that he "never ruled out going back to Westminster", while revealing that Labour MPs had privately encouraged him to oust the Prime Minister.
"I’m providing leadership on growth, which is what I think the country needs and is helpful to the Government right now, and we’re doing in advance of the Budget. "I hope to really bring to life the growth story for the Government," he said
"In Greater Manchester, we’ve built a new economy and a new way of doing politics, and more of that is what the country needs."
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