Angela Rayner stuck carefully to Labour messaging during the UK's second seven-party debate on Thursday night, as the party continues its "Ming vase" approach to campaigning.
The Labour deputy leader took part in a showdown with the Conservatives' Penny Mordaunt, SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth, Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer and Reform UK's Nigel Farage.
The seven senior figures took questions from the audience before they debated with each other, with topics including the NHS, education, immigration and VAT on private school fees.
Ms Mordaunt called Labour's planned tax raid on the independent school sector "crazy", saying the party "admitted this week class sizes will go up as a consequence", after shadow attorney general Emily Thornberry said "it’s fine" if the country has larger classes in the short term as a result.
“It’s crazy and it doesn’t serve anyone and it’s the kind of dogma that we need to keep out of the public sector," said Ms Mordaunt.
In response, Ms Rayner suggested private schools should minimise the impact on the state sector by absorbing the costs of the sales tax on fees.
Her comments came after a five-year-old clip surfaced this week, which appeared to show Ms Rayner calling for the abolition of private schools, vowing to “end the marketisation and privatisation of our education”.
Labour leader Keir Starmer - who was this week challenged on whether he was being careful to do nothing that might dent his 20-point poll lead - the so-called "Ming vase" strategy - has called the VAT policy a “tough choice”.
He said: “I do understand many parents saving and working hard to send their children to private school”, but “we have to fund our nurseries, we have to fund the teachers we need in our state secondary schools”.
Labour is keen to avoid mistakes which could affect its commanding lead in the polls, with one released just ahead of the debate, which put Labour on 37 per cent, with Reform at 19 per cent, ahead of the Conservatives for the first time on 18 per cent, the Liberal Democrats at 14 per cent, the Greens at 7 per cent, the SNP at 3 per cent, Plaid Cymru at 1 per cent and others at 2 per cent.
During the seven-way debate, Ms Rayner also trod carefully when addressing the contentious issues of tax rises, with Ms Mordaunt challenging her to rule out rises in capital gains, and ending arms sales to Israel.
Addressing the SNP’s Stephen Flynn, she said: "Stephen you know as well as I do that what happened on October 7 was barbaric and Israel had the right to defend itself. However, since then the absolute loss of innocent lives, thousands of innocent lives, everyone in the house, of all political persuasions, have been pushing for a ceasefire," she said.
Ms Rayner added: "But if we were in government, we would immediately review, as we've been asking the Conservatives, the legal advice on arm sales to Israel and we will comply with international law."
She called for a skills strategy, saying the country has been "over-reliant" on overseas workers to fill our skills gap, "and they’ve done a tremendous job in doing that and we have needed that, but what we really need is, as employment levels have gone higher again, is we need to really match those skills to give people opportunity to take those jobs".
Mr Farage said: “Well, it’s funny Angela Rayner says that because Labour today launched their six key priorities at the general election and didn’t mention the single most important issue affecting the lives of everybody in this country, namely the population explosion caused directly by migration.”
Ms Rayner, who took four questions from the parties during the debate, was also forced to defend accusations Labour is "timid".
Green Party co-leader Carla Denyer said: "I would like to know from Angela: why so timid? Why wait for economic growth when you could introduce a tax that doesn't affect those on average incomes or lower incomes, it only affects the billionaires and multimillionaires?"
Ms Rayner hit back: "I have never been called timid in my life."
The pair were talking about Labour's tax plans, unveiled in the party's manifesto on Thursday.
Ms Rayner pointed to reforms rather than tax and spend as the solution to the UK's money woes and added: "We gutted our home care services, it costs so much more money now that people are stuck on trolleys in A&E for 40-hours plus.
"These are our elderly relatives that are treated really poorly and it costs us more money, so if we put the money in the right place, we can actually make savings."
'Poster girl'
In just three weeks' time, the working class poster girl could become one of the most prominent figures in British politics, following a meteoric rise through the party.
Born on a council estate in Stockport, near Manchester in one of the UK’s industrial heartlands, the 44-year-old politician left school at 16, pregnant and with no qualifications and, in her own words, was told she would "never amount to anything".
Famed for hitting the campaign trail in platform trainers, she embraces her working class roots.
Her campaign literature heralds the fact she is “not an Oxbridge-educated, former special adviser, professional politician”, nor did she have a privileged upbringing or attend university.
Instead, she went to college and worked for the council as a carer for the elderly on zero-hour contracts.
In 2015, she became the first woman MP in the 180-year history of her Ashton-under-Lyne constituency and was soon promoted to the shadow whip’s office by then Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, and became one of the party’s most flamboyant front-benchers.
After holding the posts of shadow pensions minister and shadow education secretary, she was appointed deputy leader of the Labour Party in March 2020.
Ms Rayner plays a pivotal role for Labour in championing workers' rights and social justice and uses her personal experiences to help bridge the gap between the party and its traditional working class base.
Embodying the struggles of her supporters, the leadership is hoping the stark contrast between her and leader Keir Starmer will help attract lost voters.
With Mr Starmer being a stereotypical sombre-suited lawyer, who Ms Rayner has stored in her phone as Mr Darcy, the lawyer from Bridget Jones’s Diary, the pair are complete opposites, and even Ms Rayner admits he “smooths off her rough edges”.
On Thursday, he deferred to Ms Rayner, who was dressed in bright green trousers and a pair of white trainers, to open the launch of the party’s manifesto as she loudly promised to “start a new chapter" and create “hope” for the future.
UK general election campaigning – in pictures
