𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Labour’s civil war is ripping the party into pieces less than two years after securing a historic landslide victory. Rival factions are openly briefing against each other, while Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has effectively challenged Wes Streeting to try and topple him.

Such a move would leave Andy Burnham on the outskirts of the battle, unable to enter because he is not an MP. This would anger figures on the left of the party even further and lead to unprecedented chaos, with infighting and internal plots. But who are the key contenders, and crucially, who would be worst for Express readers?

A staunch socialist at heart, the former Deputy Prime Minister would be a disaster for Britain.

Ms Rayner’s hopes of the top job were dampened when she resigned as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader in September after an independent ethics probe found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on a seaside flat.

But the 46-year-old is still popular with Labour Party members and Left-Wing MPs.

If she were to gain the keys to Downing Street, she could renationalise water, energy and rail, reinstate the pensions lifetime allowance, raise corporation tax on banks, freeze the higher-rate income tax threshold and abolish all private schools.

In a leaked memo to Rachel Reeves, Ms Rayner also urged the Chancellor to raise taxes by £3bn-£4bn a year as an alternative to welfare cuts.

Ms Rayner would also force firms to raise the minimum wage even higher, squeezing Britain’s already hard-pressed middle earners.

Businesses are already reeling from surging costs trigged by Rachel Reeves’s tax raids.

And the former Deputy Prime Minister will also likely throw open Britain’s borders.

Ms Rayner said it was “un-British” to force foreign nationals already living in Britain to wait longer for settlement rights.

This is despite concerns the record number of arrivals over the first five years of this decade are a ticking financial timebomb.

The current Mayor of Greater Manchester would also be a disaster.

Mr Burnham has spoken of his desire for a high-tax, high-spend economy – despite Britain’s spiralling debt. His radical proposals include higher council tax on homes in London and the South East, £40bn of borrowing to build council houses, income tax cuts for lower earners, as well as a 50p rate for the highest paid.

Mr Burnham would relax the Chancellor’s fiscal rules to allow the Treasury to borrow more. He said last year that Britain should not be “in hock” to the bond market.

His flagship economic policy would be to introduce a 10 per cent “starting rate” for lower earners while raising the top level of income tax to 50 per cent.

Mr Burnham’s plans would likely terrify the financial markets and lead to an increase in Government borrowing costs.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester has also admitted he wants Britain to reverse Brexit and rejoin the EU.

He said last year: “Long term, I’m going to be honest, I’m going to say it… I hope in my lifetime I see this country rejoin.”

A darling of “Blue Labour”, Wes Streeting has angered many in the Labour Party for allegedly starting the firing gun on the leadership campaign. His supporters were among the first to call for Sir Keir to resign.

The Health Secretary has taken a slightly different view to Ms Rayner and Mr Burnham on the economy.

Mr Streeting said last year that he was “really uncomfortable with the level of taxation in this country”, suggesting he would resist further increases.

Speaking in December, he admitted the Government was “asking a lot” of individuals and businesses with historically high taxes.

But he also warned Britain had “a level of indebtedness that we need to take very seriously”, indicating that tax cuts would also be unlikely.

And Mr Streeting further set himself from the others by suggesting ministers could slash welfare spending to increase Britain’s military power.

But the potential leadership candidate is not without his controversies.

Mr Streeting is one of the most high-profile Remainers in the Cabinet and was a passionate campaigner for Britain to remain in the EU.

“The best way for us to get more growth into our economy is a deeper trading relationship with the EU,” he told The Observer in December.”

And the Health Secretary has faced questions over his political relationship and friendship with the disgraced peer.

He said he “absolutely” questioned his own judgement on the matter.

The Home Secretary hasn’t emerged as one of the frontrunners yet, but commands lots of support in the Labour.

The chief architect of the party’s immigration reforms, Ms Mahmood would likely be more popular amongst Express readers.

Reform’s Zia Yusuf even offered a small amount of praise. He said the Home Secretary is one of the few in Labour who understands the scale of the financial crisis facing the country if more than a million migrants get settlement rights over the coming years.

Overseas nationals face a 10-year wait to apply for indefinite leave to remain, double the current five years.

From June, handouts to asylum seekers will become “conditional” and only given to those “who genuinely need it and follow the law”.

Those who work in Britain’s black economy will also be thrown out of hotels, houses, flats and bedsits funded by taxpayers, alongside foreign criminals and those refusing to leave the UK voluntarily.

But many on the Labour left are trying to force Ms Mahmood to water down her immigration plans.

On Indefinite Leave to Remain, more than 100 Labour MPs have written to Ms Mahmood warning that retrospectively changing the rules is unfair.

Foreign nationals who arrived in the so-called ‘Boris Wave’ face a 10 to 15-year wait to apply for indefinite leave to remain.

And migrants could be barred from claiming benefits unless they become British citizens.

Arrivals applying for indefinite leave to remain after 10 years must have no criminal record, speak English to A-level standards and have no debt, under Labour’s new proposals.