Rayner 'set to reject job offer from PM to plot solo bid for No 10'

Sir Keir Starmer is so concerned about a leadership challenge from Angela Rayner that he has offered her the Education Secretary's job, it was claimed on Saturday. Allies of Ms Rayner say the Prime Minister is desperately trying to persuade his former deputy - who resigned in September after a scandal over her tax affairs - to return to his Cabinet in a bid to shore up his position. Sir Keir's aides are said to have privately suggested she could be handed back her old job of Housing Secretary, or even given the education brief currently held by Bridget Phillipson, in a reshuffle next year.