Here’s a cast-iron rule of politics: authenticity matters. It is almost all that matters. If you have it, you’re made. If you don’t, no team of PR professionals can manufacture it for you.
In the past few weeks, one politician has driven this lesson home: Angela Rayner. On the face of it, she’s on the ropes. After claims she once dodged paying capital gains tax on the sale of a council house, she has suffered a hammering in the press and from the opposition. But if she weathers the storm, I reckon she’ll come out on top. Despite everything, her character has been burnished as a chorus of pundits and colleagues have rushed to her defence, framing her as feisty, self made, hardworking and straight talking. A sample, from Matthew Parris in the right-leaning Times: “Angela Rayner’s only crime is being an uppity lass.”
