Angela Rayner, the working-class poster girl who gave Keir Starmer’s government the grit to balance out his middle-class barrister persona, has been cleared to run against her former boss to be Labour leader.
The former deputy prime minister, 46, has resolved the tax issues that have dogged her for the past year and seemed likely to rule her out of standing in the race to replace Mr Starmer.
She has said she will not trigger a leadership contest but will be ready to fight if Health Secretary Wes Streeting resigns in order to stand.
Ms Rayner has been MP for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015, the first woman to hold the post in the 180-year history of the south Lancashire coalfield constituency.
Popular among the Labour grassroots after a rise through the ranks and famous for hitting the campaign trail in platform trainers, she has built her reputation on her down-to-earth roots and her unconventional personal life. She has described her politics as "everyday socialism".
Born on a council estate in Stockport, near Manchester, in one of the UK’s industrial heartlands, Rayner left school at 16, pregnant and with no qualifications and, in her own words, was told she would "never amount to anything". She has said she had no books in her house growing up because her mother could not read or write. She became a grandmother at 37.
Her previous election campaign literature highlighted that 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.
Workers' champion
After becoming an MP, she 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 stints as shadow pensions minister and shadow education secretary, she was appointed deputy leader of the Labour Party in March 2020.
She has played a pivotal role in championing workers' rights and social justice, and frequently used her personal experience to help bridge the gap between the left-of-centre party and its traditional working-class base. She was credited with being instrumental in forcing a major U-turn on the UK government's flagship welfare reform bill last year.
She formed a successful double act with Mr Starmer, who she has stored in her phone as Mr Darcy, the lawyer from Bridget Jones’s Diary, with Ms Rayner acknowledging the straight-laced lawyer “smooths off her rough edges”. She was forced to apologise in 2021 after calling senior Conservative politicians "scum" during a party conference.
Success story
When her tax troubles first emerged he said it was a mistake for people to brief against her.
Mr Starmer hailed her as a "great British success story" who would give "working-class children, particularly girls, a real sense of aspiration".
"They will look at Angela and think, 'I can do something like that.' What a brilliant thing. Angela came from a very humble background, battled all sorts of challenges along the way … one of the things that drives me about politics is that aspiration is an opportunity for people to go as far as their talent will take them".
Tax investigation
Ms Rayner said on Thursday she was “relieved” she could “get on with my job” after HM Revenue and Customs cleared her of deliberate wrongdoing in an investigation over her tax affairs.
She quit the government last September over incorrect tax payments on a property transaction. Her former marital home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, was owned by a trust benefiting her disabled son. The sale of her remaining 25 per cent stake did not cut all ties with the property in law. Thus she should have paid additional tax on her new property in Hove, as a second home.
She claimed she made a mistake based on legal advice she received at the time, that she did not need to pay the higher stamp duty rate reserved for second home purchases when she bought a seaside flat on England's south coast.
She had said a conveyancer and two legal experts had all suggested the amount of the property purchase tax she paid on the home in Hove was correct. Following headlines about her tax affairs, she consulted a leading counsel, who found she was liable to pay a higher rate.
Ms Rayner then referred herself to the government’s ethics adviser Sir Laurie Magnus, who investigated the case and reported within 24 hours.
He said it was “deeply regrettable that the specific tax advice was not sought” and that she had breached the ministerial code.
Announcing the case had been resolved without penalty, Ms Rayner told the Guardian the investigation had “clipped her wings”.
The former deputy leader said: ”I welcome HMRC’s conclusion, which has cleared me of any wrongdoing. I have been exonerated by HMRC of the accusation that I deliberately sought to avoid tax.
“When purchasing a home of my own with a mortgage, I did not own any other property and had no personal financial interest in the court-instructed trust set up to manage my son’s financial award. I was advised by experts that I should pay stamp duty at the standard rate.
“I set out to pay the correct amount of tax. I took reasonable care and acted in good faith, based on the expert advice I received, and HMRC has accepted this.
“I have always sought to act with integrity and I believe politicians should be held to high standards – that is why I resigned from government and co-operated fully with HMRC.
“I wanted to ensure that I paid every penny that I owed and have done so. I am relieved that my family can now move on – and that I can get on with my job.”
She added: “I’ll play my part in doing everything we possibly can to deliver the change, because it’s not a personal ambition ... I know the difference it makes.”
Leadership contest
In an interview with ITV, the former deputy Labour leader denied she had done a deal with potential leadership contender, Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham, whose path back to Westminster would be complicated by needing to fight and win a by-election. “I am not doing deals,” she said.
She added she wanted the party to “pull together” after days of turmoil but added she did not want to talk about “hypotheticals” when asked whether she would run in a future contest.
Mr Streeting, meanwhile, is believed to have told allies he is preparing to resign on Thursday and announce a bid for the top job, after Labour descended into open division at the start of the week.
