Angela Rayner has been described as a huge electoral asset by Labour’s campaign chief, but until this week she has been one the party was unable to fully deploy.
For months, Labour’s deputy leader has faced questions about her historical living arrangements, with the police investigating claims by the Tory party that she may not have paid the right amount of tax.
This week Greater Manchester police cleared her of any criminal wrongdoing, while the local council and HM Revenue and Customs both announced that they were taking no further action. Rayner is, finally, let loose on the campaign trail.
“I’m going to [be] powering up my battlebus and going up and down the country making the case for a Labour government,” she says gleefully. “I love campaigning and getting out to speak to ordinary people and I really feel like this is a time where people are calling out for change.”
Despite her enthusiasm, she admits the last few weeks have been tough. “It was very difficult personally, because I’ve never been in trouble and I’ve always tried to do the right thing,” she said.
“While I was confident, it’s also demoralising when your opponents use this as a tactic to try and stop you from carrying out your work. It was a complete distraction from the issues that face people of this country.”
Rayner did not blame the police for investigating. Instead she points the finger at the Tories, who have now used the same election tactic against Labour on several occasions.
“I’m more frustrated with the Tories. It’s not the first time they’ve done it. They’ve done it multiple times. It’s a playbook that they seem to want to deploy. Using [police] resources in that way for political gain – I don’t think that’s acceptable from any political party.”
She believes she was a particular target because the Tories see her as a threat. “They know I’m an electoral asset to our core vote. You know, I am Marmite. Some people would say that they don’t like what I stand for, but I think most people do know that I stand for fairness, and I stand for giving people opportunity.”
Rayner was also the target of a slew of stories in the rightwing press over her living arrangements. Her son’s birth certificate was published online, and journalists knocked multiple times on the doors of former neighbours.
“It’s a really strong and really valuable part of our democracy that we have a free press and I’m very, very supportive of that. But I think with that free press comes responsibility,” she said.
“When people see disparity in the way [the media] treats different political opponents, the public see right through that, so that doesn’t worry me.”
But she admitted anxiety over journalists “going through my life”. She said: “It feels quite nerve-racking, to be honest, anyone who’s got to 44 and thinks that they haven’t done anything that if somebody wanted to make it look bad.
“I’ve lived a life. I’ve gone out with my mates. I’ve got drunk. I’ve probably had a boyfriend that I probably shouldn’t have had … I’m not perfect. But my heart’s in the right place and I want to do the right thing.”
She played down the abuse that she has received as a result of the row. “There is always abuse. Overwhelmingly there’s been a huge amount of support, because I think the public saw through what was happening.”
Rayner is seen as being more to the left than Starmer, and she increased the pressure on him by suggesting that she “doesn’t see any reason” why Diane Abbott couldn’t stand for Labour.
But she denied that only leftwing candidates had been blocked from standing. “I don’t think it’s a purge. I understand that people are nervous about that, but I don’t think it is just … candidates on the left.”
Rayner acknowledged that there was a problem with voter apathy, but said “the mood is shifting” because the public was fed up after years of the Tories.
“Apathy is there. I don’t deny that and I think the blame for that is 14 years of broken promises and slogans that were undeliverable. That’s why it’s so important that we don’t overpromise,” she said.
“How we conduct ourselves and how we’re able to get the country back on track will go some way towards restoring trust in politicians.
“But if we go into this election promising things we can’t deliver, and we get over the line on that basis, and then fail to deliver it, we just carry on that cycle of despair that people feel that politics doesn’t change their lives.”
Rayner denied that key policies in her portfolio – including workers’ rights and planning reform – had been watered down, instead suggesting she was being pragmatic.
“Rather than a case of having to reassess it, it’s been a case of the practicalities of implementation,” she said. “It’s about making sure that we do that in the correct and right way, that doesn’t have unintended consequences.”
Similarly, she suggested that while life for cash-strapped local councils would be easier than under the Tories, it would still be difficult because “there’s not going to be a sudden magic money tree”.
She agreed that, like Starmer, she was a socialist. “Yes. Socialism for me is about looking out for each other. It’s about your community. It’s about understanding that you whilst you’re an individual, you’re also part of a society and community.”
Rayner is often described as the John Prescott to Starmer’s Tony Blair. She will kick off her battlebus tour on Friday by calling the former deputy prime minister to wish him a happy 86th birthday.
But she won’t be following Prescott’s entire campaign strategy. “I really don’t have any plans to punch anyone,” she joked. “But I hope nobody has any plans to try and assault me with an egg. If we all keep to the rules, no one will get hurt.”
