Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner (' Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2024. She has been Deputy Leader of the Labour Party since 2020 and Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as being part of Labour's soft left.

Rayner was born and raised in Stockport, where she attended the comprehensive Avondale School. She left school aged 16 whilst pregnant and without any qualifications. She later trained in social care at Stockport College and worked for the local council as a care worker. She eventually became a trade union representative within UNISON, during which time she joined the Labour Party. She was selected to contest AshtonunderLyne in 2014 and was elected for the seat at the 2015 general election. From 2016 until 2020 Rayner held several Shadow Cabinet positions under Jeremy Corbyn. She successfully stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2020, and held further Shadow Cabinet positions under Keir Starmer.

Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Rayner entered government and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by Starmer in his government. Rayner's strong support base and potential as a future leader led to the ''New Statesman'' ranking her as the eighth most powerful person in British left-wing politics for 2023. ''The Spectator'' named her Politician of the Year at its annual Parliamentarian of the Year awards ceremony in 2024.

Early life and career

Angela Bowen was born on 28 March 1980 in Stockport, Greater Manchester. She grew up in poverty on a council estate with her older brother and younger sister and says she could have been taken into care. Her mother's bipolar disorder impacted the family; Rayner has stated: "When I was young, we didn't have books because my mother could not read or write." Her website describes how, " r the most part, I was raised by my grandma who worked at three jobs to put food on the table and didn't stop until the day she died – three days before her 65th birthday."

Rayner attended Avondale High School in Stockport. At age 16 she became pregnant, and left school without obtaining any qualifications. She later studied part-time at Stockport College, learning British Sign Language, and gaining a National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) Level 2 in social care. Rayner has spoken about how the Sure Start centres of the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown assisted her as a young mother with little support.

Rayner worked for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council as a care worker for a number of years. During this time, she was also elected as a trade union representative for UNISON. She was later elected as convenor of UNISON North West, becoming the union's most senior official in the region, during which time she joined the Labour Party. In 2012 ''The Guardian'' featured a lengthy profile of Rayner as part of an article on a trade union officer's working life.

Parliamentary career

In 2013 she sought selection to be the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Manchester Withington. However, Jeff Smith was selected and has been the incumbent since 2015.

In September 2014 Rayner was selected as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne. She was elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne at the 2015 general election with 48.1% of the vote and a majority of 10,756 votes. She made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 2 June 2015. At the 2017 general election, Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with an increased vote share of 60.4% and an increased majority of 11,295 votes. At the 2019 general election Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with a decreased vote share of 48.1% and a decreased majority of 4,263. At the 2024 general election Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with a decreased vote share of 43.9% and an increased majority of 6,791.

Rayner nominated Andy Burnham in the 2015 Labour leadership election, but was one of just 18 MPs to back the incumbent Jeremy Corbyn against Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election.

Shadow Minister (2016–2024)

On 1 July 2016, after a series of resignations from the shadow cabinet in protest at his leadership, Corbyn appointed Rayner as Shadow Secretary of State for Education. She supported the notion of a ' National Education Service' to be modelled along similar lines to the National Health Service (NHS), also promoting an increase in funding for early years education. She was considered by some as a possible future Labour leader.

Deputy Leader (2020–present)

Rayner did not stand for the Labour leadership in the 2020 leadership election, and supported Rebecca Long-Bailey, who came second to Keir Starmer. However, Rayner stood for the deputy leadership the 2020 deputy leadership election. She achieved sufficient support from affiliates to qualify for the final ballot on 20 January, at which point she also had the greatest number of nominations from CLPs. The results were announced on 4 April 2020, with Rayner announced as the winner and becoming deputy leader, succeeding Tom Watson.

In the days following she was appointed Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow First Secretary of State and Chair of the Labour Party. Rayner was appointed to the Privy Council on 12 February 2021. On 9 April 2020 the Labour Party announced that Rayner would deputise for Starmer opposite Dominic Raab during Prime Minister's Questions. She deputised opposite Dominic Raab during Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak's premierships, and also deputised opposite Oliver Dowden during the Sunak premiership.

Rayner was removed from her roles as the Labour Party's chair and national campaign coordinator in a reshuffle by Starmer on 8 May 2021, following the 2021 local elections. She was subsequently appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.

On 4 September 2023 Starmer appointed Rayner as shadow levelling up secretary, and shadow deputy prime minister. Rayner's strong support base and potential as a future leader led to the ''New Statesman'' ranking her as the eighth most powerful person in British left-wing politics for 2023.

Deputy Prime Minister (2024–present)

Following Labour's landslide victory in the election and the formation of the Starmer ministry, Rayner was appointed to the government as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (known as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities until 9 July 2024) by Starmer in his government on 5 July 2024.

Rayner condemned the late July and early August riots that started following the Southport stabbing, saying there is "no excuse for thuggery." In her first speech at the Labour Party Conference as Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner opened the conference and said "I want to start off with a thanks to the British people. You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it. You kept faith with us and we will keep faith with you."

As Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner has deputised for Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions on two occasions, respectively facing Oliver Dowden and Alex Burghart, jokingly saying during the former she would miss her and Dowden's "battle of the gingers".

Political positions

Rayner identifies as a socialist. In a 2017 interview to ''The Guardian'' which discusses her political beliefs, Rayner highlighted her pragmatism, describing herself as being part of the "soft left" of the Labour Party. She has strongly criticised Corbyn, as he "did not command the respect of the party", and critiqued his lack of "discipline" when it came to dealing with antisemitism in the party.

Rayner has described herself as "quite hardline" on law and order issues, having suffered from antisocial behaviour when she was young. In an interview, she said police should "shoot your terrorists and ask questions second" and that she had told her local police force to "beat down the door of the criminals and sort them out and antagonise them."

Rayner asked ''Hansard'' transcribers not to correct her speeches, preferring "to talk naturally" in the commons "because it's who I am".

In 2019 Rayner declared her support for the WASPI campaign for compensation for women affected by government pension age changes.

A member of the Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, Rayner has condemned the killings of Palestinians during the 2018–2019 Gaza border protests and has repeatedly cited Israeli violations of human rights against Palestinians on social media.

In October 2020 Rayner called then Conservative MP Chris Clarkson "scum" as he was giving a speech in Parliament, and was rebuked by the Parliament's deputy speaker for doing so. She later apologised. Clarkson had been critical of Andy Burnham, who had been seeking financial support for Greater Manchester following local restrictions on businesses being introduced.

In September 2021 Rayner strongly criticised senior members of the Conservative Party, stating: "We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile... of banana republic... Etonian... piece of scum". Some Labour MPs, while saying it was not the language that they would have used, defended her comments, including Steve Reed, John McDonnell and Lisa Nandy. Keir Starmer distanced himself from her remarks, but said it was up to Rayner if she wanted to apologise or not, while other Labour MPs condemned her in stronger terms. Several Conservative MPs, including Grant Shapps, Amanda Milling and Oliver Dowden, condemned her comments. Rayner later apologised for her comments in light of the murder of Conservative MP David Amess the following month.

Rayner has said that she "didn't have a particularly strong view either way" on Brexit. She campaigned for Britain Stronger in Europe and voted to remain in the European Union (EU) during the 2016 Brexit referendum. After the referendum result, she voted in favour of triggering Article 50, arguing that although she was "fiercely pro-EU" she was "also a democrat". She opposed Labour's policy for a second referendum adopted under Corbyn and argued that it would "undermine democracy". She also opposed a delay to Article 50. When asked how she would vote in a second referendum in December 2019, Rayner said she would vote leave as long as the withdrawal agreement "protects the economy and jobs".

Rayner supports transgender rights, saying that they do not conflict with women's rights.

After the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, Rayner supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and took a knee alongside Keir Starmer.

Awards and honours

In December 2024 Rayner was included in the BBC 100 Women 2024, a list of "100 inspiring and influential women from around the world for 2024".

Personal life

Rayner lives in her constituency of Ashton-under-Lyne with her family.

Between 1995 and 2005 Rayner was in a relationship with Neil Batty. In 1996, aged 16, she gave birth to their son, Ryan. Recalling her experience of being a teenage mother on a council estate, she said that Ryan's birth "actually saved me from where I could have been, because I had a little person to look after." When Ryan's partner had a daughter in November 2017, Rayner became a grandmother at age 37, giving herself the nickname "Grangela."

In 2010 she married Mark Rayner, a UNISON official, with whom she had two more sons, Charlie and Jimmy. Rayner says that the care her son Charlie received after his premature birth demonstrated the importance of the NHS to her. Rayner and her husband separated in 2020. In a 2022 interview, Rayner recounted that, up to 2010, she lost over in weight, thanks to a year-long training programme. She then took out a bank loan of £5,600 for cosmetic surgery on her 30th birthday. In the summer of 2022 journalists began reporting that Rayner was in a relationship with Labour MP Sam Tarry the relationship later ended in 2023.

In October 2021 Rayner reported receiving a number of death threats and abusive messages. The police arrested a 52-year-old man in Halifax. She cancelled a number of meetings with her constituents due to fears for her own safety. Later, a 36-year-old man from Cambridgeshire was prosecuted after sending her a threatening email. The man pleaded guilty in court to sending the email and was sentenced to 15 weeks in prison, suspended for 18 months. Earlier in March 2019, Rayner said that she had fitted panic buttons at her home after rape and death threats were sent to her.On 24 April 2022 Rayner was the subject of a report in ''The Mail on Sunday'', by Glen Owen, in which it was alleged that she had tried to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs in a similar manner to Sharon Stone in a scene from the 1992 film ''Basic Instinct''. The report was subsequently condemned by a range of voices across the political spectrum including Johnson and the Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle. The Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) reported that it had received 5,500 complaints about the article and would undertake an investigation. Conservative MP Lia Nici later repeated the claims in a BBC interview.

In May 2022 Rayner said she would resign as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party if she received a fixed penalty notice for breaching COVID-19 regulations while campaigning during the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election and local elections the previous year. The controversy surrounding the event was dubbed " Beergate". She and Keir Starmer were both cleared by Durham Police in July 2022 who said there was "no case to answer".

In March 2024 a former Conservative Party deputy chairman, Michael Ashcroft, alleged that Rayner had misled tax officials in the sale of her council house in 2015. Rayner said that she had done nothing wrong, and declined to publish her tax records or tax advice. Greater Manchester Police said they found no evidence that any offence had been committed. At the request of Conservative MP James Daly, the police agreed to review their decision not to investigate. The police confirmed in April 2024 that they had opened an investigation into the allegations. A poll by the research consultancy Savanta indicated that 56% of Labour voters and 26% of Tory voters thought the allegations were a smear campaign by the Conservative Party. Rayner subsequently said that she would "do the right thing and step down" if she were found to have broken the law. Later that month, Greater Manchester Police and Stockport Council both said that they would take no action against Rayner. Rayner was also cleared by HM Revenue and Customs, which concluded that she did not owe any capital gains tax and thus no action would be taken. Rayner welcomed the announcement, and said the Conservatives had used "desperate tactics" against her.

During the Labour Party freebies controversy in September 2024, the Conservative Party referred Rayner to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, claiming that her "failure to properly register" the use of Waheed Alli, Baron Alli's $2.5 million New York apartment may have breached the House of Commons' code of conduct. Ali had given Rayner gifts worth £3,550 of clothes in June 2024. Rayner later announced she would no longer accept clothes from donors.

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References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayner, Angela

1980 births
Living people
21st-century English women politicians
British socialists
British women trade unionists
Deputy opposition leaders
Deputy prime ministers of the United Kingdom
Female members of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom
Female members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East
Labour Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Ashton-under-Lyne
Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom
People from Ashton-under-Lyne
Politicians from Stockport
Trade unionists from Cheshire
Trade unionists from Greater Manchester
Trade unionists from Stockport
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
UK MPs 2019–2024
UK MPs 2024–present
Women deputy opposition leaders
Women government ministers in the United Kingdom