Angela Rayner’s bitter divide with Keir Starmer blown wide open by Diane Abbott row

So much for the “changed” Labour Party. 

Just a few days into the General Election campaign, the bitter divisions at its heart boiled over into an unseemly public spat.

Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner have always had a fractious, frosty relationship.

But over the last year, as Labour lept ahead in the polls, they had managed to put on a good public show of unity.

Today, the bovver-booted Deputy Leader went in two-footed to take down her boss in a row about Diane Abbott.

The first black female MP’s future in the party has long been in doubt after an anti-semitism incident that led to an investigation.

Ms Abbott was readmitted to Labour on Tuesday but said she had been barred from standing in the election.

For 48 hours the party has been in chaos over her status, failing to clear up the confusion about whether she will be allowed to run or not.

Some claim that Sir Keir is trying to “purge” the Left from the party.

The suspicion is that he is trying to look tough to the centrist voters he needs to win over to take power.

Sir Keir insisted that “no decision has been taken” to bar Ms Abbott when he was quizzed by journalists today.

But a few hours later Ms Rayner undermined her leader by publicly calling for the firebrand politician to be allowed to stand again as a Labour MP rather than sticking to the party line.

The divisions came after the party was also forced into a late night hasty rewrite of its tax policy on Wednesday after Tories warned Labour was planning a VAT bombshell.

For years, the spotlight has been on the Conservative Party and rightly so as it was the party of government.

But the first week of the election campaign shows that when the beam is directed at Labour the splits in the party and the hollowness of its offer are clear for all to see.