Revealed: ‘Rayner for leader’ site briefly went live in January

Exclusive: angelaforleader.co.uk domain also registered but MP’s team dismiss unfinished site as ‘fake’ created without her knowledge

An unfinished website claiming to launch Angela Rayner’s Labour leadership campaign was published temporarily in January, prompting further speculation that the former deputy prime minister could be gearing up for a contest to replace Keir Starmer.

The Guardian was alerted to the website, which appeared to be under construction, by a source in the IT industry – before the US Department of Justice’s latest release of documents on Jeffrey Epstein threw the UK government into disarray. It was published, seemingly by accident, on a “staging site”, before being removed from the internet.