It is hard to keep up with the tabloids’ rage at Angela Rayner, because it moves so fast. The Daily Mail and the Sun are trying to make the moniker “three pads Rayner” stick, in reference to a property she recently bought in Hove and has made her primary residence. Ostensibly, the reports are asking whether she saved on stamp duty (which Downing Street says she has been unable to comment on due to a court order) – but have been broadened out to question every part of her life and character. This weekend, the Daily Mail was furious one minute that the deputy prime minister spent so much time in Hove, where “residents have seen a lot of her”. The next minute, the Mail on Sunday was livid that she spent so little time there, where neighbours say she “appears to be using it as a holiday home for short breaks because she’s not there very often”. Defying the laws of physics by being in Hove too much and too little, Rayner adds insult to injury by frequenting a town that is home to the ex-wife of Sam Tarry, her partner. Sorry, his title in full: “on-off boyfriend”, despite the fact that they have been together four years. The information that Tarry, co-parent to his children, also lives in Hove may unlock this mystery a tiny bit, but wait, there’s more. Rayner has also been found guilty of going in the sea, wearing a “garishly coloured” Dryrobe (price tag: £165), vaping in a kayak, having friends and drinking wine.
The flat in Hove is, in fact, the only home Rayner owns, her London address being a grace-and-favour apartment attached to her office. And maybe that is Labour hypocrisy all over; you don’t see Reform MPs lousy with official residencies, since they are not in government. She alternates her constituency address in Ashton-under-Lyne with her ex-husband, and her teenage sons live there. That’s divorce for you. As a thought-experiment, go pick over the equity arrangements of any divorced couple you know, and see how fast they tell you to shove it.
