Representing the comparatively secure seat of Ashton-Below-Lyne in Greater Manchester, the 44-year-old politician has ascended by way of the occasion ranks lately to safe her spot as deputy chief of the Labour Get together.
“Solely Labour will change younger folks’s futures for the higher with a plan to develop the economic system and make work pay,” she stated, including: “With our New Deal for Working Folks, all adults aged over 18 years outdated will obtain a real dwelling wage at work, delivering a pay rise to hundreds of younger Scots.”
With only a few weeks to go, Labour is pulling out all of the stops as they try to safe a majority on July 4.
If subsequent month’s election goes to plan for Labour, Rayner may change into the nation’s subsequent deputy prime minister, which means this election cycle is a very powerful one in every of her political profession up to now.
Deputy Labour chief Angela Rayner assembly fathers at Broxburn Household and Neighborhood improvement centre in Livingston
Andy Buchanan / PA
Born and raised in Stockport and introduced up on a council property, Rayner’s ascent to political stardom appeared inconceivable when she left college at 16 with no {qualifications}.
Pregnant on the time, she was advised she would “by no means quantity to something”. However now, serving alongside Sir Keir Starmer as shadow deputy prime minister, the outspoken 44-year-old is once more proving the naysayers flawed.
Rayner’s skilled beginnings began in social care, the place she labored with aged folks earlier than rising as a union rep.
She was consistently questioning managers, and a colleague advised she would make union rep. Regardless of “not realizing what a commerce union was”, she was quickly a senior steward, combating in opposition to the privatisation of the house care service.
She rose by way of the ranks to change into probably the most senior elected official of the commerce union, Unison, and was then elected Ashton’s first feminine MP in 180 years in 2015.
Shortly after, she attracted a blaze of media consideration when she tried to order a pair of R2D2-themed excessive heels and ended up threatening the shop on official Home of Commons notepaper after they bought out. (The affair was dubbed “Shoebacca-gate”). Regardless of the bumpy begin, her rise was swift.
When 63 frontbenchers resigned in summer season 2016 in protest at Jeremy Corbyn’s management, she was promoted from shadow pensions minister to shadow for ladies and equalities, after which a couple of days later to shadow schooling secretary – the youngest MP to ever maintain that position.
The schooling temporary was private. In her maiden Commons speech, she credited Labour’s Positive Begin centres for “rescuing” her.
Later, in 2020, she was elected as deputy chief of the Labour Get together.
Reflecting on her working-class background, Rayner stated: “From the start of my working life, I’ve at all times stood up for working folks, first as a commerce union rep representing care staff after which as a regional union official. Now I take advantage of the talents I’ve developed to signify the communities of Ashton-under-Lyne.”
Rayner additionally confronted some political challenges throughout her time within the Labour ranks, akin to Starmer making an attempt to demote his elected deputy in 2021. She fought him off, rising and strengthened with an array of titles.
Slightly than seeing Rayner’s outspokenness as a hindrance, Sir Keir has now determined to use it to the complete as he takes the election assault to Rishi Sunak’s Tories in Labour’s outdated Pink Wall heartlands.
Angela Rayner’s criticism of the Tories
Her portfolio has come into a lot sharper focus forward of subsequent month’s election regardless of – or due to – her propensity for ruffling Conservative feathers.
On the 2021 Labour convention, as an illustration, she branded the Tories as “scum” for which she later apologised. Nevertheless, she has remained unabashed about her no-holds-barred method.
“The Tories concern me as a result of I say it how I see it,” she stated within the wake of the convention controversy in 2023, refusing to be daunted by threats of homicide and rape that noticed her given police safety.
Rayner and Starmer at Labour’s annual convention in 2022
Ian Forsyth / Getty Pictures
She has additionally been dogged by political assaults laced with class prejudice and misogyny.
In one notorious instance, she was accused by an unnamed Tory of crossing and uncrossing her legs to distract Boris Johnson reverse her within the Home of Commons.
Described as “feminist with a capital F”, she has been calling consideration to the issue for years. She made headlines in 2019 when she declared the Conservative occasion “contaminated with sexism from high to backside”, after Johnson defended a Tory candidate who as soon as advised girls to “preserve your knickers on” to keep away from being raped.
Rayner has additionally been on the receiving finish of one other line of assault for her northern accent – together with one e mail that stated “you sound thick as mince”. Tory MP Michael Fabricant accused her of “squawking on” and claimed she wasn’t “able to holding down any job which requires mind”.
Her rising CV says in any other case, and exhibits a repeated means to beat the chances.
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