Rayner issues 'last chance' warning to PM and backs Burnham to return

Angela Rayner has warned that Labour faces its "last chance" after heavy election losses this week, as she backed Andy Burnham to return to Westminster. In a statement following Labour's disastrous performance at the polls, the former deputy prime minister said the party had been wrong to block the Greater Manchester mayor from standing as an MP earlier this year. Rayner, seen as a potential contender to replace Sir Keir, called on him to "meet the moment" with bolder action to make people feel better off. She did not launch a leadership challenge herself, but her intervention will add to pressure on the embattled prime minister, who will try to shore up his premiership in a speech on Monday. In her first public comments since Thursday's elections, Rayner called for Sir Keir to take more action to tackle inequality and "squeezed living standards". In her 1,000 word statement, she called for Labour to offer regional mayors more economic powers, raise the minimum wage, and be "unafraid to promote new forms of public, community and cooperative ownership across the board". "We are in danger of becoming a party of the well-off, not working people," she added. "What we are doing isn't wo