09/02/2026 · POLITICS · 2 min read
''Rayner for Leader'' Website Goes Live, Then Down, Then Live Again in Political Hokey Cokey
The site has toggled on and off so many times that tech analysts believe it may be sentient and as indecisive as the rest of us.
A website promoting a potential leadership bid by the Deputy PM briefly went live in January, was hastily taken down, then reappeared twice more in what web analysts are calling “the most indecisive deployment since someone tried to launch a website on a dial-up connection in 1997.”
The site, which featured a professional headshot, a bold sans-serif font, and the phrase “Fighting for Working Britain,” was online for approximately eleven minutes before someone apparently remembered that you are not supposed to launch a leadership campaign while your leader is still technically leading.
The Timeline
Digital forensics experts have reconstructed the site”s brief, chaotic life:
- 11:02am — Site goes live. Features a countdown timer, a donation button, and a photo gallery with three photos, all of which are the same photo at different zoom levels.
- 11:07am — Someone on political Twitter notices. Screenshots are taken at a rate of fourteen per second.
- 11:09am — Site goes down. Replaced by a holding page that reads: “This domain has been registered for future use,” which is the internet”s equivalent of “I was just holding it for a friend.”
- 11:13am — Site goes live again, briefly, with the countdown timer now counting upwards. No one can explain this.
“In thirty years of web hosting, I have never seen a site deploy, retract, and redeploy with this much political energy.” — Senior engineer, Cloudflare
The Response
A spokesperson for the Deputy PM said the website was “not authorised, not endorsed, and not particularly well-coded,” adding that the Deputy PM was focused entirely on her current role and had no knowledge of the site, the domain registration, the hosting plan, or the annual £9.99 fee paid from an account that definitely isn”t hers.
The current PM”s office declined to comment but was overheard asking IT support whether you can block a website “using feelings.”
Your correspondent has registered pribberforleader.co.uk as a precaution. It is currently a photo of a labrador. We will pivot if necessary.