Angela Raynor - a thread for sane centre left/lefties

I think we know! 😂

I just saw a snippet online from the Daily Telegraph today with disgusting comments, boasting about how their “tenacious” reporting led to her downfall, and finishing by saying it’s all over now “Ange”. Would they ever talk about a man in that way?

I'm a life long lefty but to be honest I think this whole thing makes her look stupid. I cannot believe that she did not take proper tax advice given a) this is not a straightforward funding of/purchase of a property b) she's a member of the government (and one who has been vocal about standards in public life). It makes me think she's a bit stupid and I don't want stupid people running the country any more than I want dishonest pocket-liners in those positions of power.

Rayner should have resigned a few days, but she isn't a person of integrity

I am disappointed that Starmer was not firmer in his responses, he was appearing to give her the benefit of the doubt and the whole pr spin around the story was disingenuous and having senior cabinet ministers praising her through gritted teeth was ridiculous

This isn't just damaging to Rayner and her political career, which is over, its damaging to government

They really need to sort their pr out

@BallerinaRadio , oh I don’t doubt it for a moment. The establishment will be employing everything at their disposal to bring him down because they know that is the ONLY way to stop him. The ONLY way. 😘

I’m a small “c” conservative and take a fairly dim view of most of the political classes these days. I haven’t been thrilled with Labours performance so far, but ruled myself out of complaining as I couldn’t bring myself to vote for anyone at all during the last election. So I’m not a fan girl by any means.
However, I actually feel very sorry for Rayner. More than anything else, I think this whole fiasco has exposed that our tax system is an utter mess. She will have paid a metric fuck tonne in tax already on that house, but the system wants more because she’s trying to ensure security for her disabled child?
Stinks to high heaven.

This makes my heart sink. It wouldn't have been difficult for Angela Rayner to be transparently clean in her personal financial dealings, and she couldn't manage that. I don't want an election or a revolution. I want the current government to pull itself together and offer some conspicuous evidence of competence.

I quite liked her, as a Northern woman myself there was a lot I admired
BUT she was housing Minister and needed to do everything by the book, of all the people in Politics she was the one who needed to be squeaky clean with her housing arrangements. I don't think this was a mistake though
I would also question how an MP with a Northern Consituency can claim their main residence to be so far away, not a good look.
The worst thing is how it gives Farage and co additional ammo

Yes. Talking of Farage, Brexshit has been the biggest scam of all.
Can't resist pointing that out as I'm still angry at the damage done to our country.

I am really going to have to avoid the news now. Having had such a shitty Tory government for 14 years I had high hopes for Labour sorting shit out, but all this has done is show me they aren't really in charge and there is fuck all hope of anything changing. I wish I had never had kids. Meanwhile my local Labour MP who seems pretty decent got kicked out of the party for disagreeing with their cowardly policies towards vulnerable people and potentially disagreeing with SEND reforms.

I think we really need proportional representation now. The only way we can do that is instead of these 'get the current incumbents out' campaigns in general elections we all decide to vote independent to get party politics out.

I hope my banished MP doesn't go back to Labour for this reason.

It was the right decision to go, but I'm bitterly disappointed. I really liked her; as a young mum myself she made politics feel like something anyone could get into and succeed in. I am really disappointed by this.

Part of me wants them to say yeah, do you know what, fuck it - let's have a GE, let's let Reform in, because the sooner they're in power, the sooner they'll mess it all up and the supporters will become a bit less unbearable (until they move on to their next thing, like they have from BNP to UKIP to Reform).

Yvette Cooper along with her husband Ed was investigated for flipping homes for expenses and tax benefits way back. The usual we followed the rules even if not the spirit of the rules. I'm not sure if she yet is able to bring herself to say a biological man is not a woman. Let's look further afield for a suitable candidate.

Would it fuck

It was neither! The trust was for her son for his security, stability and safety at home. Her oversight was in not seeking out a specialised tax advisor to triple check the advice she had been given by “ordinary” conveyancers and advisors. She ought to have done this to make fully sure that she wasn’t going to get it wrong, and she neglected to, but I don’t believe she chose not to in order to get out of paying the tax. I just think she was stupid / naïve - probably extremely busy with her job and parenting and mistakenly felt it was an unnecessary extra bit of admin - fatal mistake.

I agree 100% with this.
The other sites on Mumsnet are full of hatred for her.
As I posted there, we will never know the complete truth about the tax issue.
It’s difficult to believe she would purposely & callously avoid tax, as she knows she has to be more than ‘squeaky clean’.
I truly despair at the political situation in Britain & the World. My parents were alive in the pre WW2 era & I grew up being assured by them that another war with atrocities could not happen again.
Now I fear for my children & grandchildren because I can see nothing but Right wing horrors in the future.

I can’t take seriously someone who doesn’t know how to spell Angela RAYNER surname, sorry

I think her position had become untenable.

I don’t actually think it was tax evasion (illegal). I think it was a tax avoidance scheme (legal, but immoral, especially if you’re an MP!!), to reduce the tax liability.

I think what Labour has done to this country in such a short period of time is utterly shameful, utterly, the incompetence and grabbyness is so shameful, however right now the tories aren’t in a position to be in power either, for different reasons, kemi doesn’t have the gravitas to do it, and reform would be just as bad or worse as current Labour. Farage would be even worse, we would be a laughing stock.

So my view is starmer has to go, there is no way back for him, it’s too bad, it’s irreversible now. The mess, the corruption, the incompetence is palpable.

yvette cooper is pretty much a solid pair of hands who looks remotely respectful, she isn’t on the take from what I understand, or Andy burnham. But it’s a sad day for sure when you’re looking around for someone who doesn’t appear incompetent or on the take.

Sadiq khan would be disasterous. We need the North Sea back operational again.labour have all but shut it down, thousands of jobs are going and we now import our energy rather than drill for it. So many shameful things happening. That’s just one of many.

so they need to oust starmer, and put someone in the country trusts, and someone who isn’t on the take, is not too far left, not too far green they aren’t in the real world, and who isn’t utterly incompetent. It’s a small pool of candidates,

Angela’s working class credentials is what got her where she is, she didn’t get there despite it, she hid behind the skirts of it, in reality she has a messy life, messy finances, and with her free holidays and not paying her tax, was undoubtedly using her position for personal gain outwith what is required of her,

I agree that this government have been so disappointing on a comms level. This was another example of stupid carelessness which will now come back to bite them. As the ethics letter makes clear, she has integrity but this oversight was just stupid and simply not of the standards expected.

That said, Farage and numerous Tories have and do get away with so much more. What Angela did was careless but absolutely nothing compared to Trump’s corruption, and yet those right wing men get away with it. I am furious with the press for being so biased and hounding her. A clear level of snobbery and misogyny involved.

Labour have done some great meaningful things but hardly any of the electorate could point to this’s, only these silly mundane scandals and poor cock ups like the winter fuel. I really wish they would get Alistair Campbell back in to get them back in line!

the best thing for the country at the moment is stability

I agree, and we certainly do not have stability with the current Labour government. The last Budget caused huge uncertainty and worry. The late Budget date this November is creating yet more uncertainty, with families and businesses worried about what’s to come. The Budget date is so late that Scotland might not be able announce their plans until the new year. The uncertainty, instability and worry that the country has is awful.

The right was not going to stop until they’d brought Raynor down. They hate her and what she stands for.

It seems that no matter how good their intentions at the outset once in power they become the same as every other politician- greedy, entitled and selfish

Couldn’t disagree more.