Angela Rayner has said she would never want to be prime minister because “it would age me by 10 years within six months”.
“Have you ever seen a prime minister after a year or two in government?” the deputy prime minister joked.
The morning after Sir Keir Starmer scraped through a major rebellion over his watered-down welfare reforms, Ms Rayner was asked whether she is waiting in the wings to take the embattled PM’s place.
“Not a chance,” she told ITV’s Lorraine.
She said: “It would age me by 10 years within six months, it does, anyone who has been prime minister it is a very challenging job.”
Amid mounting questions about the prime minister’s future following a disastrous first year in power, she defended Sir Keir, saying he is “doing the job for Britain”, adding “there’s been a lot going on” in the 12 months since the PM entered Downing Street.
She said: “He’s been all around the world trying to repair the relationships in Europe. We’ve got the trade deals that the previous government wasn’t able to do, tackling the things like the tariffs that the president in the US wanted to put onto the UK, which would have damaged our economy again.
“There’s a lot going on, and the prime minister’s been […] here, there and everywhere, doing the job for Britain.”
It comes after polling expert Professor Sir John Curtice referred to Sir Keir’s first year in office as “the worst start for any newly elected prime minister”.
He told Times Radio that the prime minister was “never especially popular” and that “the public still don’t know what he stands for.”
Asked if she would be interested in being prime minister at some point, Ms Rayner told the ITV programme: “No”.
She said that she is “passionate” about issues including workers’ rights and council housing.
“I’m very interested in delivering for the people of this country, because … to be elected as an MP from my background was incredible,” she said.
“Having that opportunity to serve my community that have raised me, looked after me, given me opportunities, and I don’t forget that. And to be deputy prime minister of this country … it’s got to count for something.”
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