How Angela Rayner became a force to be reckoned with

When she appeared on the Matt Forde podcast in January, the most interesting thing Angela Rayner said wasn’t about the length of her skirt or the crossing and uncrossing of her legs in the House of Commons.

Although she did banter with the Left-wing comedian about “the meme about Sharon Stone” that had been doing the rounds, the most telling part of the interview came at the beginning when she was announced as “the most powerful woman in the Labour Party”.

Striding onto the stage at the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden, where the podcasts are recorded in front of an audience, she joked: “I said he had to introduce me like that or I wouldn’t come on.”

Like everything the 42-year-old deputy Labour leader says in jest, there appeared to be an element of truth to it. Later revealing how, “God, yeah”, she’d love to be prime minister one day, it is perhaps little wonder that this teenage mother turned political powerhouse is fast emerging as one of the Opposition’s best hopes of electoral success. Perhaps even their only hope.

Cutting through to the public in a way that most MPs can only dream of, the self-styled “fiery, ginger northerner” has become such a well-known character in Westminster, she even has a cocktail named after her at the Strangers’ Bar (although her favourite tipple is in fact a vodka and coke).

Yet #Skirtgate has elevated the former union rep with a tattoo of Labour’s red rose to a new level of stardom beyond the confines of Westminster, which is not just being seen as a threat to Sir Keir Starmer – but the Tories, too.

‘When she gets knocked off her stride, she just gets back up and gets on with it’ Credit: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor

Why else would Conservative MPs have “mischievously suggested” to The Mail on Sunday that the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne “likes to distract Boris Johnson when he is at the Dispatch Box by deploying a fully clothed Parliamentary equivalent of Sharon Stone’s infamous scene in the 1992 film Basic Instinct”?

Notwithstanding the fallout from last week’s story – including Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle’s ill-fated attempt to sanction the newspaper’s editor over the story – the fact the tale made page five shows that even Right-leaning newspapers view Ms Rayner as the MP of the moment. 

So how has the self-confessed “street kid” reached such stratospheric heights so soon – and where does she go from here?

Boris-like in her ability to generate a headline with a loose-lipped remark, it wasn’t long ago that the mother-of-three and grandmother-of-one was being condemned for describing Tories as “scum” at last October’s Labour Party Conference. 

Today, she’s being feted as a champion of women’s empowerment by both Left and Right – with the Prime Minister even vowing to unleash the “terrors of the earth” on the “sexist” and “misogynistic” colleagues who briefed against her. 

Part of the secret of her success is that she shares with Mr Johnson that rare thing in politics: relatability. As PR guru Martin Townsend puts it: “She’s got what Boris has got and Farage has got: that slightly naughty side that appeals to the public. You’d want to go for a drink with her. 

“She’s a character and she’s also good at playing the political game. The worst thing in politics right now is being boring. Keir Starmer is a glass of water but Angela Rayner is a cocktail with an umbrella sticking out of it. She’s basically Labour’s Boris.”

‘She’s got that slightly naughty side that appeals to the public. You’d want to go for a drink with her’ Credit: Simon Chapman/LNP

The similarities between the sworn ideological enemies are becoming increasingly plain to see – not only in their penchant for speaking without thinking but also in their colourful private lives and notoriety as politicians who appear to gleefully transcend their own parties. As one Labour colleague put it: “You could certainly say Angela is a bit like Boris in the way she trades on her big personality. She is also quite a complex character with a USP that appeals to the party membership.”

The unlikely kinship hasn’t been lost on Ms Rayner, who suggested on the podcast that Mr Johnson has got a “bit of romance going on there”, and that he wouldn’t attack her because she was a “working-class girl from council estate”, while he is “a posh guy from a posh school”.

She was speaking just days after a slightly flirty exchange standing in for Sir Keir at PMQs, when Mr Johnson appeared to delight in joking that the former comprehensive schoolgirl was now the “shadow minister for the future of work”, joking: “We all know what job she wants.” 

Grinning broadly, Ms Rayner fired back: “I’ve heard on the grapevine there might be a vacancy for prime minister soon, so maybe I should show aspiration.” 

Yet the truth is, while they may come from different sides of the track, Ms Rayner’s “chaotic childhood” is not dissimilar to the dysfunctionality at the heart of Mr Johnson’s upbringing.

‘Angela’s nobody’s fool. She knows how to do politics’ Credit: Leon Neal/ Getty

Born in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in 1980, she attended Avondale School in Cheadle Heath, leaving aged 16 with no qualifications after getting pregnant following her first sexual encounter. She has subsequently given interviews about her “feral” childhood, recalling how her bipolar, sometimes suicidal mother once came back from the shops with dog food, thinking it was stewing steak, because she couldn’t read or write. She has also spoken of how she was “never loved and nurtured as a child” and how she had to “learn to take hugs” from her own children because she had suffered “emotional deprivation” when she was little, growing up in a household “full of fear”. 

“My mum wasn’t motivated to play with us or entertain us, so we were feral,” Ms Rayner has said. “She wasn’t able to read with us, so we were behind. I remember walking my younger sister to primary school. We got ourselves ready. My mum wouldn’t be able to get up. I got bullied because my hair was always a mess. That’s why my hair is always immaculate now.” Her fondness for high heels stems from her being forced to wear black steel-capped shoes, which led to more teasing at school.

Mr Johnson’s late mother, Charlotte Wahl, suffered from mental health problems, often leaving them in the care of a “chain-smoking nanny”, according to his sister, Rachel. Ms Rayner has spoken of her father’s affairs and her parents’ “explosive” relationship – again revealing an upbringing with eerie similarities to Mr Johnson’s. 

The teenage Ms Rayner resolved to prove to the world “that I could be a good mum” and started visiting a Sure Start nursery to learn how to bond with her newborn son. “When I got pregnant there wasn’t much disappointment,” she has said. “It was just accepted that that happened to girls like me. But I was determined to give Ryan everything I didn’t have.” In 2017, Ms Rayner became a grandmother, at the age of 37, when Ryan’s daughter Lilith was born. She announced the birth on Twitter using the hashtag #Grangela. 

Having spent much of the short time she was at secondary school “hanging out with my mates”, she returned to education to study part-time at Stockport College, learning British Sign Language, and gained an NVQ Level 2 in social care before working for Stockport council as a care worker. Encouraged to join Unison by her colleagues because she was so vocal, she was elected as a trade union representative, rising through the ranks to become its most senior official in the region. 

In 2010, she married Mark Rayner, a fellow Unison official and the couple went on to have two sons, one of whom was born so prematurely he is registered blind and has special educational needs.  

Selected as the Labour candidate for her Greater Manchester constituency, Ms Rayner has said that she only stood to make the point that “people like me can’t get elected”, before “accidentally” winning the seat at the 2015 general election with an increased share of the vote.

‘What’s different about her is she has a personality as well as politics and principles’ Credit: Nicola Tree/Getty Images

Her rise up the Labour ranks was swift following Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader in the same year. Although she shared a flat with arch Corbynista Rebecca Long-Bailey, insiders insist Ms Rayner is not as Left-wing as some have suggested. “She’s on the Left of the party on a lot of issues but she’s not a factional Lefty. She’s Left on the economy but quite Right on law and order. Ultimately, she’s very pragmatic in her politics,” says one.

She and Ms Long-Bailey may have gained a bit of a reputation for their boozy nights out, but Ms Rayner is far from cliquey, according to one former staffer: “She’s not in a cabal like some of the others, she gets on well with a wide range of colleagues.”

Despite serving in Mr Corbyn’s shadow cabinet, she continues to be regarded with suspicion by many on the far Left who fear her tougher stance on issues like immigration and the police, whom she once declared she “loved”. 

And having developed a knack for being in the right place at the right time, when Mr Johnson trounced Mr Corbyn in the 2019 general election, she spied an opportunity and with characteristic determination, pushed herself forward.

As a former colleague pointed out: “Angela’s nobody’s fool. She knows how to do politics. Whatever anyone makes of her background, I’ve never got the impression she’s less clever – in fact in some of her manoeuvres, she’s outsmarted everyone.” 

It is perhaps telling that in her spare time, Ms Rayner is apparently an “avid reader of non-fiction on work-related themes”, according to one insider. Recent books include Kleptopia by Tom Burgis, and Deep Cover by Shay Doyle and Scott Hesketh about the murder of two officers in her constituency. She is currently immersed in Beyond a Fringe, the memoirs of Andrew Mitchell, the Conservative MP of “Plebgate” fame. When not reading, she reportedly loves nothing more than listening to true crime podcasts late at night. As for her taste in interior decor? As one source puts it, “Ange has a statue of a flamingo in her house that she loves.”

Rayner has previously said: ‘I’m outspoken and do my own thing. I’ve always gone with my gut and that’s got me into trouble sometimes’ Credit: Geoff Pugh

Yet it seems that her stratospheric climb up Labour’s greasy pole was to the detriment of her marriage, as her 10-year union with Mark ended in 2020 – around the time, ironically, that Mr Johnson finalised his divorce from Marina Wheeler, his wife of 27 years. The break-up came a year after Ms Rayner had shed several stone by following a strict, calorie-controlled diet, transforming herself into a leopard print-wearing, tousle-haired glamour puss in the process. 

Much has since been made of her closeness to Sam Tarry, the Momentum-backed MP for Ilford South, who ran her successful campaign to replace Tom Watson as deputy leader in April 2020. 

The pair made the headlines in January when they were photographed emerging from Ms Rayner’s Westminster flat with a tell-tale toothbrush sticking out of Mr Tarry’s top pocket. She later stressed that both were single when they got together and have “not done anything wrong”.

The arrival onto the scene of the father-of-two, 39, who was once chairman of Young Labour and worked on Mr Corbyn’s leadership campaign, has also coincided with the reorganisation of Ms Rayner’s top team. 

She remains loyally served by her longstanding lieutenant Nick Parrott, who proved his worth when he helped to negotiate her way back into the party after Sir Keir sacked her from Labour’s front bench last May. After losing the Hartlepool by-election, the Labour leader tried to reshuffle Ms Rayner out – only for her to furiously refuse and end up with four job titles instead. It helped her case that Andy Burnham, the Greater Manchester mayor, made his opposition to the move public, while Sir Keir’s office received a string of representations from shadow ministers and Labour-supporting unions. “Angela has so much political capital,” said one party official at the time. Or as a newspaper reported: “Friends say that nothing infuriates her more than the sense that she is being underestimated by anyone – but particularly a middle-class man – with more formal qualifications.”

According to one Labour MP with knowledge of what happened behind closed doors: “That was classic Angie. When she gets knocked off her stride, she just gets back up and gets on with it.”

‘She’s a force of nature’ Credit: Jonathan Hordle/Shutterstock

Stressing the importance of Mr Parrott’s role in the operation, the MP and friend added: “Nick’s been with Angie all the way through. It was a moment of madness on Keir’s behalf, which spectacularly backfired when the membership fell in behind her. I think Keir learnt that weekend that he needs Angie. He needs that contrast because she’s the one who really connects with the public. He could arguably use her more.”

Describing their relationship as “ying and yang”, Ms Rayner insists she gets on with the Labour leader but concedes that their double act has echoes of Tony Blair and John Prescott. 

“Obviously I’m a bit gobby,” she has admitted with trademark candour. “I’m outspoken and do my own thing. I’ve always gone with my gut and that’s got me into trouble sometimes.”

Yet as Sir Keir struggles to explain why Labour is only seven points ahead of the Conservatives, despite partygate – Ms Rayner has been busily bolstering her team, recently recruiting Alex Jones as her lead media adviser and Kate Robson on policy. Both are first-class degree graduates, well known in Left-leaning circles. Mr Jones was previously head of communications for the GMB, which will help keep the unions onside, while his role as head of political strategy for the National Union of Students should prove useful when it comes to attracting the youth vote. Ms Robson previously worked for shadow home secretaries Nick Thomas-Symonds and Yvette Cooper, so is used to grappling with thorny issues that matter to Red Wall constituents.

With the rising cost of living now the biggest concern for voters, the newly assembled team is planning “a big push on that ahead of polling day”, with the May 5 local elections at the top of Ms Rayner’s in-tray.

‘Keir Starmer is a glass of water but Angela Rayner is a cocktail with an umbrella sticking out of it’ Credit: Eddie Mulholland

On Wednesday night she visited Southfields, in south-west London, where she posed for the obligatory campaign trail picture, cradling a baby. She then dashed back to the Commons to call on the Government to release information about the appointment of Lord Lebedev to the House of Lords, later describing it as a “murky business” on Twitter. 

Having admitted that she feels guilty for not having seen much of her children over the past seven years, how serious is Ms Rayner about challenging for the leadership one day? According to a former employee: “She always, always said, for all the time I worked for her, that she’d do it if she thought she’d be good at it. That’s still her view. You have to be ambitious to have the trajectory she’s had. But she’d only run for leader if she thought it would be good for Labour.”

A close MP friend agrees: “People think she’s individualistic because she has this personality that stands out. They misunderstand her if they do. She’s actually more of a collectivist than that. What the people outside Westminster don’t see is, she’s trying to bring the different parts of the party together. 

“Angie’s 42, so I don’t think she thinks anything needs to happen now. I think she thinks that being deputy Labour leader is the best thing she could ever be – but she’s a force of nature. 

“We have, in the Labour Party, people who keep quiet for fear of causing controversy. That’s why she stands out. We’re used to people like her on the Right but not necessarily on the Left. What’s different about her is she has a personality as well as politics and principles. That’s what set her apart.”

An effective communicator who knows what it’s like to live on a shoestring? As Britain faces a cost of living emergency, we can expect to see and hear a lot more from the politician who recognises that her background has become her greatest strength.

As Ms Rayner herself has put it: “When I first came into Parliament, I thought, ‘I’m nowhere near as good as all these people that have got big brains and have been to private school.’ Now I look at it and think, ‘Oh my God, step aside, because you have not got a clue about what’s happening in people’s lives.’ I now think, ‘I could definitely do a better job.’”