Labour flatmates Rebecca Long-Bailey and Angela Rayner ready to run together on leadership ticket

Two of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies are preparing to stand on a joint ticket for Labour’s leadership positions.

Labour shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey. Picture: Getty Images

Two of Jeremy Corbyn’s closest allies are preparing to stand on a joint ticket for Labour’s leadership positions.

Shadow business secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey and shadow education secretary Angela Rayner are understood to have teamed up to run for the Labour leadership and deputy leadership respectively.

Ms Long-Bailey has the backing of shadow chancellor John McDonnell and will run for leader with her friend and flatmate as her deputy. The two have shared a flat in London since becoming MPs in 2015 and their friendship is thought to be behind their reluctance to compete for the same position.

Both represent Greater Manchester constituencies and joined the shadow cabinet to fill vacancies caused by resignations after the 2016 EU referendum. Ms Long Bailey, 40, was shadow chief secretary to the Treasury for seven months and has been shadow business secretary since February 2017. Ms Rayner, 39, has been in her post since 2016.

Ms Long-Bailey is seen as more firmly of the party’s left wing. She campaigned for Mr Corbyn to become leader in 2015. Ms Rayner backed Andy Burnham, who finished a distant second.

Ms Long-Bailey has been one of the most prominent shadow cabinet ministers under Mr Corbyn’s leadership. With Ms Rayner at her side, she deputised for Mr Corbyn at prime minister’s questions in June, asking questions about steel and climate change. During the election campaign she had responsibility for selling the party’s “green new deal”.

The job of deputy leader has been vacant since Tom Watson, who often clashed with Mr Corbyn, stood down at the general election. The only declared candidate so far is Dawn Butler, the shadow women and equalities secretary, who announced during the election campaign that she would run for the position. Others thought to be considering throwing their hat into the ring include Richard Burgon, the shadow justice secretary, Barry Gardiner, the shadow international trade secretary, and Conor McGinn, the MP for St Helens North.

Mr Corbyn said on Friday that he would stand down after Labour’s worst defeat since 1935. But he is expected to remain in his post until the end of March. Jennie Formby, the general secretary, indicated that the contest to replace him could start on January 7.

Shadow Treasury minister Clive Lewis suggested on Tuesday that he could run for leader. “I am thinking about it,” he told the BBC. “I think one of the things you are going to need to be able to do is to reach out to both sides of this discussion, both sides of this argument. We have got Remainers and Leavers still as part of the electorate and my seat was a 60-40 split.”

Senior backbencher Lisa Nandy is set to join the race. Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer and shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry are also likely candidates.

The Times