James Daly, the Tory MP who pestered the Greater Manchester police into reopening inquiries into Angela Rayner, rather gave the game away when he was tested on what he expected the detectives to be looking for. Asked several times in a broadcast interview, the party deputy chair floundered: “Certain matters… regarding certain things.” More Inspector Clouseau than Inspector Morse.
In their wildest dreams, this affair would culminate with the humiliating and shamefaced downfall of Labour’s deputy leader, but I don’t meet many Tories who really expect to get that result. They calculate that the relentless onslaught against Ms Rayner by the Conservative party, with the support of its collaborators in the rightwing media, will not be a wasted effort even if they don’t get her bang to rights and with no choice but to quit. It will still be a win for them, so Tories think, if they succeed in distracting and disrupting Labour. To an extent, they are achieving that goal. Under their breath, some shadow ministers wearily mutter their exasperation that so much of their time is being spent batting away the accusations against the deputy leader. It is eating up energy that Labour wanted to be spending on the May local government elections and the national contest that is only a bit further down the track. A day that was on the Labour grid for Sir Keir Starmer to project how he would defend the realm turned into one in which he was repeatedly pressed to defend his deputy. A day that Labour wanted to use to promote its housing policy became devoured by questions about Ms Rayner’s living arrangements and tax liabilities nine years ago.
