Local election 2021 RESULTS LIVE – Sadiq Khan wins London Mayor race as Angela Rayner sacking slammed by Andy Burnham

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A BITTER row has erupted in the Labour party after Andy Burnham slammed Keir Starmer’s decision to sack Angela Rayner.

Retweeting a Guardian article Rayner’s sacking, the re-elected mayor of Greater Manchester wrote: “I can’t support this.”

Yesterday Rayner was dramatically fired after Labour’s disastrous performance in the local elections.

Meanwhile, Burnham is the bookies’ favourite to replace Starmer as the Labour leader endures a nightmare at the top.

The Greater Manchester mayor is ahead of shadow Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy in the betting stakes.

It comes after Boris Johnson completed a hattrick of stonking victories in Labour’s former heartlands.

Conservative Andy Street this afternoon stormed reelection as mayor of the West Midlands with a swelled majority, following yesterday’s Tory wins in Hartlepool and Tees Valley.

Mr Street, who sneaked a surprise victory in 2017, put more than 47,043 votes past his Labour rival, the former Cabinet minister Liam Byrne. 

The triple-whammy defeat has sparked serious soul-searching within Labour – as well as a furious blame-game among rival factions.

Some small comforts were taken with Labour holds in the Manchester and Liverpool mayoral races, with London also set to stay red.

Allies of Sir Keir rallied round their leader, and pointed to the pandemic as a hindrance to his ability to campaign.

It came as: 

  • Nicola Sturgeon’s chances of gaining an SNP majority collapsed
  • Boris Johnson slammed her “reckless” push for Indyref2
  • Sadiq Khan was marching towards reelection as London mayor

Read our Local Elections 2021 live blog below for up to the minute updates…