When they come to write the global history of hypocrisy, Angela Rayne’s role will surely have pride of place. She might even be the cover for the book.
There she is, Secretary of State for Housing, fighting like fury for a 24 per cent profits tax to be imposed for the first time when selling your home, while at the same time quietly underpaying her stamp duty.
It’s a long time since I’ve enjoyed watching such a fall from grace. Looking at the rogues’ gallery on the Socialist benches, I suspect this will be a regular event. Makes good television - especially for GB News.
The way she deployed her working-class credentials as some kind of barrier against criticism was gut churning. You were at it Rayner and got caught. Had nothing to do your background.
As much as I loved seeing Rayner being vanquished, I was appalled at the way senior Labour politicians then tripped over themselves to appear on radio and television to praise Saint Angela as a great woman, a great asset to the Labour Party and a great member of the working class. Is she hell.
Angela Rayner will take pride of place when they write the global history of hypocrisy - Kelvin Mackenzie | Getty Images
Can’t imagine what other tricks she’s been up to. The fact that she pocketed £162,000 (enough for the cash deposit on her dream home in Hove, 250 miles away) when she sold the 25 per cent she still owned of her home in Ashon-under-Lyne has difficulty passing the sniff test.
Rayner could have done the decent thing and simply gifted the 25 per cent to her son, leaving him with the £162,000, which he will definitely need in the years out as he’s only 17 now.
Rayner chose not to do that but instead took the money and bought an £800,000 flat 250 miles away. Something doesn’t add up.
Rayner now complains that her family’s private life is being destroyed by media intrusion. Give me a break.
She has brought this on herself. Like all politicians, she must blame somebody else. As Atlee once said, a period of silence would be welcome.
Amazing, but out of 412 Labour MPs, they are so short of candidates without a venal aspect to their lives that they are now suggesting Rayner runs again as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party. This must be a joke.
An even bigger joke is that Louise Haigh, the ex-Transport Secretary, who resigned after it emerged she pleaded guilty to an offence related to incorrectly telling police that a work mobile phone was stolen in 2013, has also thrown her hat into the ring.
Oddly, nobody has thrown it out yet.
That’s how desperate Labour are. They don’t care about these transgressions so long as you can say working class, then there’s a place for you at the top table.
If, however, you say middle class, there’s no room for you.
Got a nice house? We’ll tax that so the SKIDS (Skint Idle Dim Socialists) can live a life they haven’t earned.
Got a nice job? We’ll increase the taxes on that so the SKIDS can ‘’earn’’ the same money doing nothing as if you did a 40-hour week on minimum wage.
Got an ambition for your child? We’ll tax your local private school, so you have to be a burden on the state and end up with less good exam results than you had paid.
There is class war going on, and I fear Labour will turn even further left before they are thrown out.