Now that Dominic Cummings has turned on the government, the people who’ve spent the last year calling him a liar are very quickly reassessing his honesty and integrity – and no one more so than Labour’s Deputy Leader Angela Rayner. Despite previously saying she “didn’t believe a word” out of Cummings’ mouth, and landing barnstorming gags about his trip to Barnard Castle, Rayner has now completely U-turned; claiming yesterday’s evidence was both “devastating“, and “very serious“. Asked on the Today Programme to explain Cummings’s newfound trustworthiness, Rayner said:

“Well Dominic Cummings has made numerous allegations which we know, fact, that we had the highest death toll in Europe, we know that… the point is that Dominic Cummings shouldn’t have the final word on this, Dominic Cummings has made serious allegations, who was in the room at the time, and therefore the public have the right to know the answers to these questions…”

Rayner’s confidence in Cumming’s credibility and his version of events is a joy to behold in these cynical times…