All eyes on Wes: inside Labour's leadership crisis
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Wes Streeting is/was expected to make his move today for the Labour leadership – but does he have the numbers? There was some frantic briefing last night, with competing claims about who has the required number of MPs and who might be prepared to give up their seat to Andy Burnham. It almost takes us back to the days of Tory infighting.
But the big news this morning is that Angela Rayner has been cleared by HMRC. In an incredibly well-timed judgment, there is now nothing standing in her way from making her own bid for the top job. So where are we on Thursday morning? What should we expect from the next 48 hours?
James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and James Lyons, former director of strategic communications in Number 10.
Produced by Oscar Edmondson.
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Transcript
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| 0:35.2 | Hello, and welcome to Coffee House Shots. I'm James Heel and I'm joined today by Tim Shipman, |
| 0:39.1 | the spectator's political editor and James Lyons, the former director of strategic communications in number 10. |
| 0:43.9 | Tim, we're recording this at 11 o'clock on Thursday morning. We've had the announcement that |
| 0:48.1 | Angela Rain has been cleared by HMRC. Where are we at on the fundamental question of the Labour leadership? |
| 0:53.0 | We are in a Beckett play called Waiting for Wes. |
| 0:57.1 | But Angela has broken free with one leap and bound. |
| 1:00.4 | She's paid the £40,000 to HMRC, but has not received a penalty, which is quite interesting. |
| 1:05.8 | I'm looking forward to making that argument to HMRC the next time they chase me for money. |
| 1:10.0 | I was simply remiss, |
| 1:12.1 | like the former deputy prime minister. And it looks like she's just received quite a large donation, |
| 1:16.9 | which appears to cover the cost of paying the tax as well. So well done her. She is loose on the |
| 1:22.5 | streets and people are wondering whether Angela will be the left-wing candidate in this election if it ever |
| 1:28.8 | starts. And, you know, we heard last night that there were West Streetings people seemed to be |
| 1:33.8 | phoning around quite an interesting selection of MPs, some who weren't necessarily that well |
| 1:38.8 | disposed to him, sort of saying, well, let's get this thing going and you can change your vote later, |
| 1:43.0 | which is a bit like what happened with Jeremy Corbyn back in the day. So West Streeting was due to be out talking |
... |
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