Keir Starmer told by his MPs to 'look in mirror' for elections blame as he sacks Angela Rayner

Sir Keir Starmer was on Saturday night told by senior leftwing Labour MPs to “look in a mirror” for someone to blame for the party’s dismal election results as he sacked his chairman.

Sir Keir began a major reshuffle of his top team, removing Angela Rayner as his party chairman, prompting an outcry from leftwing Labour MPs.

However he was unable to remove Ms Rayner from his top team altogether because her position as deputy leader is elected by the membership.

One former party adviser likened Sir Keir to Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader who was forced out of his party before he got the chance to fight a general election.

The adviser told The Sunday Telegraph that the problem with Sir Keir is that he “actually isn’t a politician. He has done four or five years as an MP, he has absolutely no roots”.

The adviser added: “He seems out of control of himself. He seems to have lost any semblance of how to manage a political party, which is very similar to how Iain Duncan Smith became in the last days of his leadership.

“He is swinging like a punch drunk boxer on Saturday night.”

Ms Rayner, seen as one of his main rivals in any potential leadership race, took the blame for the party’s poor performance in the local elections and Hartlepool by-election.

A Labour source said: “Keir said he was taking full responsibility for the result of the elections - and he said we need to change.

“That means changing how we run our campaigns in the future. Angela will continue to play a senior role in Keir’s team.”

Sir Keir’s critics on the backbenches suggested he cannot be said to be taking responsibility for Thursday’s election results while sacking members of his front bench.

John McDonnell, the former shadow chancellor and key ally of former leader Jeremy Corbyn, accused him of “scapegoating everyone apart from himself”.

“This isn’t leadership, it’s a cowardly avoidance of responsibility,” he said.

Jon Trickett and Ian Lavery, who are influential on the Left of the party, issued a joint statement warning that the party faces “obliteration if a cabal of middle class remainers continue to treat what was once Labour’s core support with contempt”.

“If the leader is looking for someone to blame for this dismal round, he must look in a mirror,” they said.

Labour MPs Ian Murray, Chris Bryant and Wes Streeting have been tipped to replace Ms Rayner as party chairman.

Other rumours swirled in Westminster of more departures from the front bench, with Anneliese Dodds, the shadow chancellor, Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary and Andy McDonald, the shadow employment rights secretary, rumoured to be on their way out.

Other insiders said that Lisa Nandy, the shadow foreign secretary, was also set to be moved. Nick Brown, Labour’s chief whip, was also said to be “looking vulnerable”.

Mr McDonald and Ms Dodds did not respond to a request for comment. Ms Nandy was approached for comment. A Labour spokesman denied last night that Mr McDonald had already left the shadow cabinet.

Ms Rayner, a former shadow minister in Mr Corbyn’s team, is generally viewed as allied with the Left.

She has been blamed by Labour sources for the poor performance of the party in Thursday’s elections, and is said to have supported the selection of Dr Paul Williams, Labour’s failed candidate in the Hartlepool by-election.

Dr Williams is a former MP for Stockton South and Remain supporter, and is viewed as a poor choice for a constituency that voted to leave the EU by almost 70 per cent.

A Conservative source suggested that Ms Rayner’s departure was linked to her weak campaigning effort in the lead-up to local elections.

“If Angela Rayner had spent more time on the campaign trail and less time writing letters and playing politics, maybe she’d still be in post,” the source said.

A source told the Daily Mirror last night that she had gone to the pub following her sacking.