So, it’s farewell to Angela Rayner, at once the most interesting, the most flammable and the most catastrophically embarrassing member of the Labour front bench. For better and worse, she was a lightning conductor for Sir Keir Starmer. As his Deputy, she did what deputies aren’t supposed to do, namely, outshine the boss... although it must be said that this isn’t difficult in the case of Sir Keir.
She wasn’t, as she promised, “John Prescott in a skirt”, for Tony Blair’s deputy was never touted as a possible replacement for the PM, as for a time Rayner was. That was the extent of her position in the party - she was talked about as an alternative to Sir Keir as Prime Minister. No longer.
