There are still plenty of unanswered questions for Angela Rayner as she prepares for her march on Downing Street. Questions any leadership candidate – any future Prime Minister – would not want hanging over them…
Perhaps these questions will be answered in Rayner’s hotly-anticipated memoir. In December, the Guardian gleefully reported of a “bidding war between several different publishers” for the rights to the book. Three months on, no contract has appeared in her register of interests, and this morning Politico heard that won’t change at the next update to the register. So presumably no money has changed hands yet, which is usually the first thing that happens when a book deal is signed…
A memoir would force Rayner into a bit of a corner. She could address the outstanding questions about her property arrangements head-on, which might cause a headache for someone trying to become PM. She could try to avoid them, which would raise eyebrows on its own. Or she could try to spin her way out of it, which never works either. It’ll be a page-turner when (if) it ever comes out…
Lucy Powell on LBC, asked by Tom Swarbrick for her reaction to Labour MP Samantha Niblett’s call for a ‘summer of sex’ debate in Parliament: “I personally don’t own any sex toys, but each to their own… I’m not really sure that’s the right place for it, no.”