On LBC today Angela Rayner got her own department’s policy wrong by claiming that Labour has cut VAT for some businesses. Have a look at this transcript:
LBC: And Andy Burnham writes in one of the newspapers today, The Daily Mirror, that he’d like to see the return of butchers and bakers and bookshops, and we all agree with that. But as James Cleverley, your political rival, says, just because you closed down a vape shop, Angela, it doesn’t mean automatically it’s going to reopen as a butcher’s, does it?
RAYNER: No, it doesn’t, and that’s one of the reasons that Andy Burnham announced the cuts to VAT for some businesses and that he wants to go further to support businesses on the high street. You know, shopping types of the way in which we shop has changed over time. I travel up and down the country. In some parts of the country, I see lots of independent shops. In other parts, it’s not as easy to see them. So we want to see our high streets invigorate and that’s why we’ve put an extra five billion pound into Pride of Place funding so that we can really revitalise our high streets, as well as crack down on the gambling and vaping shops that people don’t want to say.
Burnham had announced a one-fifth cut to business rates for some venues like night clubs and pubs – though not hotels and restaurants which are suffering the worst from those rates. You might hope the Housing Secretary – who deals with the high street – would know the difference between those two taxes…
A Tory source said: “Angela Rayner in a muddle with the tax system? Some things never change.” Indeed…
Angela Rayner was asked on the Today programme whether it is appropriate for people to be crossing the channel on boats carrying the same number of passengers as an EasyJet flight. Nick Robinson noted that at this point along with sympathy Brits are also feeling “rage.” Rayner said:
“Well, these are desperate, vulnerable people getting into these vessels that are dangerous and we’ve got to stop that. The Home Secretary has got this agreement which is pay by results with the French to stop these boats from coming over.
We’ve seen a reduction in the number of boats that are coming over. And we’ve also seen a huge increase in the amount of deportations of people that come here illegally. So, we’re cracking down on those that are in the country illegally and removing those that shouldn’t be here.
But we’re also saying that those criminal gangs that are putting often, you know, children and women into vessels that are not seaworthy, we’re seeing people that are dying at sea that are desperate to come here and we’ve got to crack that and stop it.”
More than three quarters of all crossings are men over the age of 18…
Further to Guido’s reporting earlier today on Louise Haigh, it is only fair to mention that she is not the only sitting government minister who voted against renewing Britain’s nuclear defences in 2016. All while Burnham reheats a previous announcement to prove how serious he is about this…
Angela Rayner, Lisa Nandy, Ian Murray and Vicky Foxcroft (both junior DCMS ministers) also voted against Trident’s renewal. That’s three Cabinet ministers who are in favour of nuclear disarmament. Certainly both Haigh and Rayner still hold considerable influence over the Cabinet and the wider PLP. Before the 2024 election, Rayner admitted she “hadn’t changed her mind“, and then gave some waffle designed to stop the ming vase breaking:
“I haven’t changed my mind. The vote that we had some years ago mentioned nothing about multilateral disarmament and what I feel is really important for the long term is that globally we should be looking at disarmament of nuclear weapons, but that has to be done in combination with other countries.”
When they tell you what they really think, believe them…
Angela Rayner is refusing to pay back a penny of the £16,876 severance pay she received after resigning last year, despite returning to the same job just ten months later. And after attacking the Tories for “a staggering lack of shame” for doing the same back in 2022…
She told Matt Chorley on BBC Radio 5 Live today:
“No, my severance payment was given to me at the time. I’d worked in government for a period of time, and then I came out of government for just under a year, I think is the timetable, and I’ll be delivering in government again. But on the Conservatives who took their severance, we’re talking weeks. Some of them were even, you know, a very short period of the time, and I think that chaos and that wider point about delivering for the British people is what we’re focused on, is not having that chaos. Not looking like we’re in it for ourselves, but actually delivering on the promises that we made in 2024 in that general election.”
That money is of course courtesy of the taxpayer. Admittedly Angela had quite a tax bill of her own to pay recently. At least she knows how to work her benefits…
Cabinet hopeful Angela Rayner has promoted Lucy Powell to Deputy Prime Minister this morning. A sign of jobs to come?
Responding to a listener who chastised Lisa Nandy for leaving X rather than shutting it down entirely, Rayner said on her LBC show:
“I think one of the challenges that we face is that I think the government was being accused of shutting down free speech. But I don’t think it’s free speech actually. I think when people are being given misinformation, and untruths. It has caused challenges. If you remember the first summer. That we came into government, there was a lot of misinformation that was out on social media and it caused a lot of unrest.
And actually what we do need to do, and I think, I think our Deputy Prime Minister Lucy at the weekend was making the case for it as well, is that we really do need to crack down on some of this rubbish that is being spouted out, which is wrong and it causes real big problems for us. So I agree with you on that, that, you know, you shouldn’t be allowed to just get away with saying whatever you want.”
That will be news to DPM David Lammy. Powell has her eyes on the prize…
Lucy Powell’s solution to ‘misinformation’ online is for the government to take control of algorithms governing social media feeds. Something Labour is already attempting with YouTube…
A big operation is underway by Angela Rayner to get the attention of Team Burnham. Seeing as he’s going to be PM in less than three weeks there is a big rush for jobs going on…
A briefing appeared in the Telegraph suggesting that because Burnham was a fan of devolution – proposals for which Rayner has worked on for some time – the ex-DPM has a top advising role and is expected to get a job in his government. Included was the suggestion she might be made Chief Secretary to the Treasury to oversee Team Burnham’s war with that department…
Rayner wasn’t at Burnham’s speech. She gave one of her own last night at the left-wing think tank the New Economics Foundation where she was full of praise for Burnham’s policies, which are currently 1) devolve more powers and 2) build council houses. A big fall for someone who was going to run for the leadership just weeks ago…
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”