‘The right-wing press was always out for Angela Rayner – now they’ve gone and done it’
Angela Rayner has resigned as Labour deputy leader and its housing minister, following controversy over a £40,000 underpayment on a Hove property. Why was she such a target for the press, and has Keir Starmer made a mistake in letting her go?
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In brief…
- The News Agents say Angela Rayner, a constant target for “sexism and classism” through her career, had no choice but to step down following recent reports of a Stamp Duty underpayment.
- They say she has a rare power among British politicians, due to her background, to speak to working class people in a way the right-wing press, and other MPs, could never have.
- Rayner, they add, could now prove a “nightmare” for the government, with the potential to be an “unknowable” force on the back benches.
What’s the story
Angela Rayner "had to go", say The News Agents, following her announcement that she was stepping down from her roles as deputy Prime Minister and housing minister.
It follows weeks of press coverage of a £40,000 underpayment of Stamp Duty paid on property in Hove.
"I accept that I did not meet the highest standards in relation to my recent property purchase," Rayner wrote in her resignation letter.
She adds that she "deeply regrets" her actions.
"I take full responsibility for this error," Rayner added.
"I would like to take this opportunity to repeat that it was never my intention to do anything other than pay the right amount."
The intense media scrutiny on her family, she says, resulted in her decision to stand down.
Keir Starmer has said he is "sad" to see Rayner step down, says she was "right" to do so, and that she would remain a "major figure" in the Labour Party.
She also addressed her working-class upbringing in her letter, saying how politics changed her life, going from a teenage mum on a housing estate to holding one of the most important jobs in British politics.
Emily Maitlis says many people around the country will feel a lot of sympathy for Rayner, and will have related to her journey, but also understand she made a "stupid mistake" and had to go.
"It's not just because it revolves around her family, around her disabled son, but because that life story just represents so much to so many people, and so many women," Emily says.
"She did manage to make politics seem more real, more alive, less stuffy, and more human.
Emily adds that Rayner didn't care if she was photographed partying in Ibiza, puffing on a vape in a canoe or drinking a gin and tonic on the beach – and these images of the former deputy PM only made her resonate more with voters.
"In an age when we demand so much authenticity, we want to see real people – and there she was, in all her real glory, pulled down and pilloried for it so often," she adds.
Jon Sopel says having her family life dragged through the press must have been "brutal".
Why was she brought down?
Lewis Goodall says Angela Rayner needed to be more careful than most about her personal affairs.
Not just because of her position, but because of the hate and fury her success provoked in the right-wing press.
"She's a working class female politician who got to the very top of government," Lewis says.
"She was therefore threatening to the same political forces and the same parts of the press because she could do something that they fear.
"She authentically spoke for, and spoke to, precisely the parts of the electorate that they claim to speak to and for.”
He says she was the constant subject of "sexism and classism" throughout her career.
"But that is precisely why she had to be more careful than most," he adds.
"They were always going to find a way to get her if she wasn't, and that's what they've done."
Emily believes the Conservative Party will never forgive or forget Rayner calling them "homophobic, racist, misogynist... scum" in 2021 – and standing by her remarks.
"She was the person who could get the crowd going against the Tories when they when Labour was in opposition, and rally people to a sense of tribalism," she says.
“Rayner reached the parts of the party that traditional buttoned-up politicians couldn't reach. She made people laugh, or she made them cheer, or she made them feel a little bit naughty.
"And that ends up being the thing that puts you in the firing line."
Jon Sopel says there will now be people "dancing on her political grave" as they celebrate the end of her time as deputy prime minister.
What does this mean for 10 Downing Street?
Keir Starmer announced a reshuffle of his cabinet following Rayner's departure, with Jon describing the situation for 10 Downing Street as a "nightmare".
Lewis believes this could get even worse for Starmer and his team, depending on what Rayner does next.
"She was a very powerful deputy leader because she represented a faction of the Labour Party, which Starmer did not, which was in uneasy cohabitation with Starmer," he says.
"The nightmare scenario for No.10 is that if she decides to become a lightning rod for some of the discontent that we're seeing with the Starmer government and its direction.
"She could still be a powerful rallying figure, a powerful figure around whom people could cohere."
The wiser move for the government, he adds, would have been to hold onto Rayner, discredited, instead of setting her on a path to a more "unknowable", and potentially disruptive, future.