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…
Angela Rayner will be the headline guest speaker at Mainstream’s spring reception next month, with MPs, hacks and “friends from civil society and across the labour movement” invited to a central Westminster location (TBC) to discuss “[building] principled, practical and popular Labour politics for the country”. Mainstream was founded last September by Compass group and Open Labour, with the support of Andy Burnham just as he prepared to dump on Starmer at party conference. Its mission is to prevent Labour’s “clear drift to the right” under Starmer…
Rayner is rallying the troops against Starmer in broad daylight. If he’s even still in situ by the time she speaks…
“any papers which are prejudicial to UK national security or international relations will be referred to the Intelligence and Security Committee.”
Andy Burnham allies are gossiping about a political comeback for Angela Rayner, should the Mayor of Greater Manchester decide return to Westminster. The King of the North and the Red Queen…
According to the Telegraph, Labour MPs think a pact between Rayner and Burnham could emerge – in which the former deputy PM marshals support for Burnham from the backbenches ahead of his comeback. He becomes leader, she returns as deputy…
One Labour MP said:
“I do know that in the last year, there have been conversations between them… People suggest that Andy and her could run together… What we have to do as a party is to regain confidence in the north of England. Keir Starmer is never going to achieve that, and Andy could begin to pull it back.”
It is still mostly gossip, for now. As Guido reported, the Labour NEC are hostile to a Burnham by-election comeback and would move heaven and earth to stop it. Although with Andy’s pal Lucy Powell ahead in the deputy leadership race, and Rayner conspiring on the backbenches, there’s still an appetite to take them on. Of course, he’d then have to actually win that by-election…
In a last laugh at her own failing housing brief Angela Rayner’s new Hove flat is a freehold. No faith in those leasehold reforms then…
Land Registry documents confirm the flat comes with a share of the freehold managed by a Resident Management Company and distributed to flat owners. Rayner bought it in May and just weeks later told the Housing Select Committee that pushing ahead with leasehold reform is “fraught with legality” and added: “Don’t act in haste and then repent at leisure – you’ll only cause more problems.” On the day Parliament broke for summer recess, the government quietly confirmed that reforms to make it easier and cheaper for leaseholders to buy their freeholds – part of a package pushed through by Gove in the last government – have been kicked into the long grass, pending a judicial review by the pro-leasehold blob under the ECHR, which could drag on for years. Rayner insulated herself from that one – provided she can keep the flat…
Mrs Thatcher did say that “there is no prouder word in our history than ‘freeholder’.” Right to Buy and now this – Rayner proving herself a keen Thatcherite. In personal life if not in policy…
Sir Laurie Magnus, the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards, is the Whitehall bod who whacked Angela Rayner’s ministerial career last week. Sir Laurie was appointed by Sunak and has taken out three ministers so far…
The first was Nadhim Zahawi, who was investigated by Magnus over ostensibly the same matter as Rayner – tax affairs. There was a difference in tone this time…
Magnus concluded his letter to Starmer regarding Rayner last week with the following somewhat fawning flourish, delivering his judgement “with deep regret”:
“I believe Ms Rayner has acted with integrity and with a dedicated and exemplary commitment to public service. I consider, however, that her unfortunate failure to settle her SDLT liability at the correct level, coupled with the fact that this was established only following intensive public scrutiny, leads me to advise you that, in relation to this matter, she cannot be considered to have met the “highest possible standards of proper conduct” as envisaged by the Code. Accordingly, it is with deep regret that I must advise you that in these circumstances, I consider the Code to have been breached.”
No such polite padding was provided for Zahawi, nor even for Tulip Siddiq, who was also felled by a judgement from Magnus back in January. No regret was expressed in either case, and the public service of those ministers was not praised…
The system of the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Standards is coming under scrutiny even inside Labour, with other ministers feeling that the role is not sufficiently independent of Starmer. Labour sleaze mounting up…
Speaking to Sky News off the back of Rachel Reeves’ Air Passenger Duty hike, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary said:
“Labour is dependent on those Red Wall seats, and yet every move she makes poisons economic growth and damages the UK’s recovery… it’s the Chancellor who stumbles from policy misstep to policy misstep… I think her policy decisions are incredibly stupid.”