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If Angela Rayner is the answer, what on earth is the question? (Image: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
If Angela Rayner is the answer, what on earth is the question? As Sir Keir Starmer’s beleaguered Government sinks ever deeper in the mire of unpopularity, the noisy, maverick Deputy Prime Minister is increasingly hailed by Labour activists and supporters as the potential saviour of their party. Yet for much of the British public, the prospect of Rayner entering Number 10 will cause only dismay, because of the chaos and conflict she will bring to the top job.
If she succeeds Sir Keir, she will be by far the most left-wing premier that Britain has ever known. Rayner is a radical socialist politician who wants to make it easier to strike and harder to run a business, who prefers tax hikes to spending cuts, who clings to the pieties of woke ideology and the outdated enmities of class war. The trade unions adore her not only because she worked as a regional official for Unison before her entry to Parliament in 2015 but also because she is determined to strengthen the influence.
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In a passionate speech in 2023 to the TUC, she set out a long catalogue of powers that she planned to give the unions if Labour won the next election. “I make no apology that we will work hand-in-hand with the trade unions,” she declared to thunderous applause.
Aggressively partisan, she revels in confrontation with her opponents. In 2020 during a Common debate, she described one Tory MP as “scum”, a slur for which she had to apologise, but that did not stop her indulging in another wild rant the following year against the Conservative party, which she called “a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile of banana republic, Etonian piece of scum”.
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Her anachronistic brand of big state, union-controlled socialism has never worked. Wherever it has been tried, it has brought only bureaucratic excess, and economic misery. Yet, so ill-judged in her political outlook, Rayner is far shrewder about advancing her own interests. Fuelled by her ambitious ego, she can be a ruthless operator in her own cause, as Sir Keir Starmer discovered in the spring of 2021 when he tried to demote her after Labour’s disastrous defeat in the Hartlepool by-lection. Rayner so comprehensively outmanoeuvred him that she ended with more titles and jobs.
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Don't miss... Angela Rayner blasted by Tories over key housing pledge
Now in the midst of Labour’s present crisis of credibility triggered by the Government’s gross mishandling of the economy, she senses a golden opportunity to strike. She denies this, of course, telling broadcasters this week that “I don’t want to be leader of the Labour Party.” But behind such blandishments, the ground is clearly being laid for a leadership bid. That’s why documents have been leaked from her office which revealed that, with her usual socialist venom, she told the Chancellor Rachel Reeves to avoid spending cuts and target tax increases at the middleclass. It has also been reported that Rayner’s allies are not only preparing an alternative programme for a new Labour government but also developing plans for a socialist think tank to promote her agenda.
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For all Rayner’s spectacular flaws, she has two great assets in the looming battle for Labour’s soul. The first is that her chief rivals have been discredited in recent months, while her approval rating among Labour members stands at 62%, easily the highest figure for any Cabinet minister, whereas Reeves’ personal authority has collapsed thanks to her endless U-turns and broken promises. Similarly Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, undermines his left-wing credentials by daring to challenge the quasi-sacred status of the NHS. In contrast, Rayner is posed as a champion of social justice by fighting the cuts, some of the heaviest of which have fallen on her own Ministry of Housing.
Her second advantage is her inspirational back story which gives her an authenticity that so many other politicians lack. She was brought up in extreme poverty on a council state by her mother who suffered from mental illness. Having become pregnant, Rayner left school at 16 and first worked as a care assistant. But admiration for her resilience does not mean that she should lead the nation. Only two Deputy Prime Ministers – Clement Attlee and Sir Anthony Eden – went on to reach the summit. It would be a grim day if Rayner was to join this duo.
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The British Medical Association, as the representative, professional body for doctors, should be the epitome of moral leadership. But the organisation has a surprisingly chequered history, leading, for instance, a bitter campaign in 1948 against the creation of the National Health Service which it feared would undermine doctors’ earnings.
And the BMA has descended to new debts of selfish militancy in recent years through its strikes in support of unjustified pay claims. This week the Association started a new ballot for action after resident doctors were offered an inflation-busting 5.4% pay rise, following other settlements worth 27% over the last two years. The Association cannot be allowed to hold the public to ransom in this way.
It is outrageous that vulnerable patients are being used as bargaining chips in a dispute about money. In the long term doctors, like the army, police and prison service, should be barred from taking industrial action because of the crucial nature of their jobs. In the short term, however, Health Secretary Wes Streeting should stand firm. Another bumper pay award would only encourage the BMA’s intransigence.
Jeremy Hunt is one of the unsung heroes of modern British politics (Image: Rasid Necati Aslim/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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Jeremy Hunt, whose compelling memoirs are published this week, is one of the unsung heroes of modern British politics.
The longest-serving Health Secretary in history, he showed a remarkably steady hand at the helm of the NHS, just as he proved to be a superb Chancellor, particularly in clearing up the mess left by Liz Truss.
At a time of endless turmoil and crisis at Westminster, he brought a sense of decency and dignity to public life. In fact the disastrous modern saga of the Tory Party might be very different if he had become leader in succession to Theresa May.
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The England football team has endured some humiliations over the years, but none of them match the extraordinary upset that occurred exactly 75 years ago.
On 28 June, 1950, the cream of England’s professionals were beaten 1-0 by the unknown amateurs of the United States on a dusty pitch at Belo Horizonte in Brazil.
“I’m still embarrassed about it now,” said the great England winger Tom Finney. The American team contained no stars but had a hearse driver, a dishwasher and a student from Haiti.
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British passports used to be seen as cherished objects, but today they are rapidly being devalued by the political class’s addiction to open borders. New statistics out this week show that last year 269,621 people were awarded British citizenship, a rise of 30% from 2023. It is little wonder that there are such fears about the erosion of our solidarity and identity.
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All sorts of dark conspiracy theories are swirling around the internet about the amazing footage of President Macron being shoved in his face by his wife Brigette as the couple arrived by plane in Vietnam. But one simple explanation might be that Bridgette is as fed up with the resident’s smug phoney personality as the rest of the French public is.
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101 Comments
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George Best (Image: Action Images / MSI)
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The King made a historic flying visit to Canada to open its national Parliament.
George Best, the Northern Irish footballer, liked to boast of a less edifying trip he made to the country after he saw a billboard advert for ginger ale. “The poster said, ‘Drink Canada dry’. So I gave it a try.”