Angela Rayner admitted people are “impatient for change” amid Labour’s plummeting popularity.

The Deputy Prime Minister was asked about Nigel Farage‘s Reform UK overtaking her party for the first time in an opinion poll earlier this week.

She told the BBC‘s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme: “I know people are impatient for change and people are very angry that they see (what) they were promised.

“So, for example, when we left the European Union, people were promised more money into the NHS, your living standards will be better, and the opposite has happened.

“I know people are impatient for change, but I also know that people will give us that opportunity and will judge us, and that’s why Keir set out the clear guidelines on what people should expect we will deliver.”

Pressed on why Labour’s ratings had “fallen off a cliff”, Ms Rayner insisted the new Government had faced “significant challenges”.

She said: “The system with the prisons for example which we were one day away from total catastrophe, we had to deal with that very quickly.

“Nobody is going to think it’s popular to release prisoners early but we inherited that situation. We dealt with the unrest over the summer very effectively.”

Asked about stripping millions of pensioners of winter fuel payments, she added: “We had a £22 billion black hole.

“We protected the most vulnerable pensioners, we put the household support fund in for those that are not eligible for pension credit, we’ve invested in our public services, within our NHs, our schools.

“We’re already implementing the changes we said, the border command, we’ve already sent over 9,000 people that are illegal in this country back outside of the country.

“So we’re already delivering within the five months we’ve been in power but I understand that people are impatient for change and that’s why Keir is pressing ahead and asking a lot of his Cabinet and the civil service and local authorities to say people need to see that change and we all need to be part of that delivery.”

It comes as Sir Keir Starmer has faced a series of rows including over Budget tax hikes, freebies for senior Labour politicians and a power struggle in No 10 which saw Sue Gray ousted as his chief of staff.

The Prime Minister gave a speech last Thursday in a bid to reset his premiership after just five months in office.

He set out six “milestones” that he said would allow the public to hold his government to account.