Angela Rayner, often hailed as Labour’s advocate for the working class, found herself in a markedly different setting last week. A lavish dinner in the upscale Notting Hill neighborhood starkly contrasted her upbringing on a Stockport council estate.

The event was hosted by Matthew Freud, a prominent public relations figure known for his influential connections and boasting a noteworthy lineage as the great-grandson of Sigmund Freud and nephew of artist Lucian Freud. The gathering took place in his grand, opulent townhouse, where, according to one attendee, Freud introduced Rayner as a potential future prime minister—a claim he later denied.

Despite any past controversies, including a scandal involving unpaid stamp duty on her £800,000 coastal home that led to her departure from the Cabinet, Rayner appears to be thriving in London’s elite social circles. This transformation is evident in her attendance at Freud’s gathering, where she mingled with prominent figures from media, publishing, and finance well into the night, dressed strikingly in a white shirt and red coat.

Rayner’s ambitions seem clear. She is positioning herself as a key player in a potential left-wing challenge to Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership. Following a dramatic Commons debate on Peter Mandelson, she reportedly assured colleagues of her readiness to step up should Starmer’s position falter.

At Mr Freud’s salon, Ms Rayner did not just gulp her wine, make her excuses and leave: according to one guest, the 45-year-old – clad in an arresting ensemble of white shirt and red coat – socialised until late into the evening with guests from the worlds of media, publishing and finance.

Ms Rayner is making little effort to hide the fact that she is planning a Left-wing coup against Sir Keir Starmer’s Government – as she demonstrated after Wednesday’s dramatic Commons debate on Peter Mandelson by telling colleagues that she ‘will be ready’ to move if Starmer falls.

The former deputy prime minister’s intervention in the chamber was one of the most jaw-dropping powerplays Parliament has seen in modern times.

For Labour’s self-professed champion of the working classes, last week’s sumptuous dinner in Notting Hill was a world away from the Stockport council estate of her childhood. (Angela Rayner pictured in Liverpool last month)

Ms Rayner is making little effort to hide the fact that she is planning a Left-wing coup against Sir Keir Starmer’s Government (pictured yesterday) 

By making it clear she was prepared to vote with the Conservatives, Ms Rayner forced Sir Keir to allow Parliament’s intelligence and security committee to oversee which documents should be released relating to Mandelson’s disastrous appointment as our Washington ambassador. 

It was a humiliation for the Prime Minister, and in the eyes of most Labour MPs has hastened his end.

In the hours before she struck, Ms Rayner had ‘set up shop’ in the Commons tea room – where MPs of all stripes gather to plot – over a very un-Notting Hill lunch of chicken and chips. 

As she munched away, surrounded by her ‘praetorian guard’ of allies, her boyfriend – and lead political cheerleader – Sam Tarry was roaming the parliamentary estate, machinating on her behalf.

Her Commons intervention is unlikely to be an isolated incident.

Next week, Ms Rayner is due to address a conference of the Night Time Industries Association, where she is expected to call for a cut in VAT rates for the hospitality industry. 

Such a move would put her at odds with Chancellor Rachel Reeves, who has resisted pressure to extend to the wider industry her £100million bailout for pubs struggling with a sharp hike in business rates.

As Ms Rayner munched away, surrounded by her ‘praetorian guard’ of allies, her boyfriend – and lead political cheerleader – Sam Tarry was roaming the parliamentary estate, machinating on her behalf. The pair are pictured together at Parklife Festival in June, 2022

Friends of Ms Rayner say she feels no obligation of loyalty towards Sir Keir or Ms Reeves because, while the Chancellor was given the full protection of Downing Street when it was revealed by the Daily Mail in October that she had rented out her London home without a required landlord licence, Ms Rayner was ‘thrown to the wolves’ during the stamp duty scandal.

It is a complaint that has been echoed publicly by her close ally Louise Haigh, who was forced to quit as Transport Secretary after her 2014 conviction for mobile phone fraud became public in 2024 – without the same support from No 10 that Ms Reeves received. 

Ms Haigh plays a key role in the Tribune group of soft-Left Labour MPs, which is expected to swing behind any Rayner leadership bid.

That would set the tone for a Government even more Left-wing than Sir Keir’s, with Net Zero obsessive Ed Miliband eyeing the post of Chancellor and Ms Rayner’s friend Rosena Allin-Khan earmarked for Wes Streeting’s job at health.

Though it must be said that these are claims that a spokesman for Ms Rayner says: ‘We do not recognise.’

Still, the feeling of momentum behind her has grown since Manchester mayor Andy Burnham was blocked by Labour’s ruling NEC from standing as the party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election this month.

Labour MPs who back Mr Burnham had expected Ms Rayner to run as his deputy if he had come back to the Commons, and they were wrong-footed when she failed to try to cajole the NEC to support Mr Burnham.

Labour MPs who back Andy Burnham (pictured last week) had expected Ms Rayner to run as his deputy if he had come back to the Commons 

Ms Rayner’s allies made it clear to Wes Streeting (pictured last month) that he would have to get past Ms Rayner before achieving his life-long ambition to become PM

Since then, her allies have been briefing that ‘Angela is her own woman’ who expects to run in her own right, not as an ‘adornment’ to Mr Burnham or Mr Streeting.

That was designed to make it clear to the Health Secretary that he would have to get past Ms Rayner before achieving his life-long ambition to become PM.

When Sir Keir was more secure in his position, Ms Rayner would fiercely deny that she had any leadership ambitions.

Last weekend, The Mail on Sunday reported she had secured a ‘war chest’ of more than £1million to fund her bid to succeed Sir Keir – after wining and dining donors in her infamous seaside bolthole – and was promising Cabinet jobs to supporters. 

As part of the ratcheting-up of the plotting, she has also set up a new company grandly called The Office of Angela Rayner Ltd for her business earnings.

The newspaper also reported that her supporters had claimed HMRC is dragging out its investigation into her tax affairs at the behest of a shadowy Establishment network trying to stop her from becoming Prime Minister.

Out of all those claims, Ms Rayner appeared to be really irritated only by the HMRC angle in the story, which prompted a source close to her to say: ‘Angela respects HMRC and any criticism of their handling of her case is not attributable to – or sanctioned by – her.’

Its investigation is undoubtedly a headache for Ms Rayner.

Her allies remain hopeful that she will be exonerated, and could be spared having to stump up the full £40,000 underpayment on her Hove property.

If the Prime Minster falls before the HMRC reports, it will still prove difficult for her to resist throwing her hat in the ring.

Barely five months has elapsed since Ms Rayner’s exit from the Cabinet, but her allies believe that the time out of the Government has boosted her leadership chances, because she is untainted by the near-daily calamities of the Starmer administration.

It has also given her time to woo Labour MPs, donors and the party members who will decide the contest. 

She is said to already have more than the 81 names of supportive MPs required to trigger a contest, while party members already rate her ahead of Mr Streeting.

Friends say she sees her mission as keeping Nigel Farage out of Downing Street; for his part, the Reform UK leader regards her as a trickier opponent than the current incumbent of No 10.

In her resignation letter last year, Ms Rayner, said that ‘for a teenage mum from a council estate in Stockport to serve at the highest level of government has been the honour of my life’.

The crumbling of Sir Keir’s administration means she is now poised to go even further – and in the process drag our Government even further to the Left.