Angela Raynor - a thread for sane centre left/lefties

Yeah the hypocrisy is absolutely sickening. Tories who were involved in their own tax scandals playing all innocent and reprimanding her. The meme the daily mail have published of her in front of a council house. The whole thing reeks of classism and misogyny, and anyone (irrespective of their political affiliation, because it’s not really a political issue) should be horrified by the rampant hypocrisy

I disagree. She has benefited from being the Darling of the trade unions. The hypocrisy is rank and needs to be called out.

Really?
No, it was a deliberate dodge.

@BallerinaRadio , hilarious!

I’m not a lefty and I didn’t particularly like Angela Rayner but I feel sorry for her - in the way she’s been hounded.

I think there are undertones of snobbery in the press campaign, which is not pretty.

I notice Rayner is still trying to use her disabled child as a shield to hide her own greed, lies & corruption.

Corrupt Labour politicians are worse than corrupt Tories because the latter do attempt to hide their venality behind fake piety.

Oh come on! I’m to the left, but even I recognise that the Labour Party exploited every Tory scandal to the nth degree. They can’t then cry foul when one of their own gets the same treatment.

I hope another woman gets a chance. It will be sad to lose some balance on the front bench. I can’t think of anyone who is necessarily qualified to take over housing though - male or female.

Guardian reporting that Rayner's flat in Hove has been graffitied with 'Tax Evader Rayner' and, of course, 'bitch'. How absolutely disgusting

She had to go, and she has been very foolish and maybe even arrogant, but nobody deserves that. I'm amazed there are any women left in politics at all

From Magnus’ letter to the PM

“But, he says this advice was qualified by the acknowledgment that it did not constitute expert tax advice - and suggested that this be obtained.
Without having sought this advice, Magnus says Rayner "cannot be considered to have met the highest possible standards of proper conduct”

Didn’t she claim that she sought expert tax advice? And then tried to throw the conveyancing firm under the bus?

Unfortunately, AR/Labour can’t just say but I am working class and what I have done is not as bad as the Tory upper class - she failed to do due diligence and so there is no alternative but to resign or be sacked.

Agree that Tories got away with much worse ( cue Track&Trace contracts). However, no party is particularly likeable or gives competence vibes. Btw, same is applicable to most advanced economies starting from the USA.

I’d always vote in the way most likely to remove or keep out Labour.

History has shown that to be the most sensible strategy for all voters and never more so than now.

Oh yes? And who will you be voting for, I wonder?

There is no mechanism for an early general election unless the Labour party decide to call one, which is vanishingly unlikely. You can't just have another election every time you fancy it (despite the Tories using it to their advantage as best they could).

I liked Rayner a lot and thought she had to put up with a hell of a lot of snobbery and prejudice. Just look at most posts about her on here.

Based on the details I think this was a genuine mistake too rather than a deliberate dodge.

There really isn’t anyone else I respect in this government, I’m afraid. I really dread the Farage government that is surely now almost certain.

A general election would absolutely not be a good idea. All legislation grinds to a halt and IMO the best thing for the country at the moment is stability and allowing labour to get on with things.

Yes, Rayner has behaved disappointingly. She stepped down. She isn’t the entire government. Let’s move on.

Let's not tempt fate. If people keep saying it's inevitable he'll get in it becomes more likely.

Even if you think what she did was wrong, the scale of it is miniscule compared to the rank corruption of Farage and the Tories. COVID funding diverted in the hundreds of millions. Unfortunately people have short memories.

I think it’s the right decision. It’s a shame, I think she’s a great asset to the Labour cabinet and it appears to be an honest mistake in very difficult and complex circumstances. But Labour promised us a government that acted with the integrity and accountability that was so lacking with the Tories and this is taking that responsibility.
I hope the press will now move onto the tax affairs of other politicians with such fervour, Farage’s tax avoidance on this Clacton ‘home’ or his dodgy GB News income arrangements for example. Won’t be holding my breath though.

I just feel, despairingly, that they are just not that good at actual politics.

I disagree sharply with AR on gender issues but otherwise like her. I liked her taking on the Toryboys on her own terms, her warmth.

But this, it's just basic hygiene. If you are actual goddamn housing minister, and you have already had questions raised about your taxes, and you have criticised others on this.... you just do better. You check and double check. You manage the optics.

It's like the whole Lord Ali thing again. I do not care in the slightest if Starmer had a pair glasses bought for him or his son studied in a friend's flat. But for goodness sake, wouldn't you see how it looked? How much of a distraction it would be?

They're politicians! Optics is their job ffs.

Yes, unfortunately, Labour tried to claim they were better than the Tories but it very quickly unravelled. Live by the sword, die by the sword.

'A general election would be a good idea'

Right. Who is it exactly that you're itching to vote for?

Give over. I absolutely do not condone what she has done but if we threw a GE everytime something like this happened we would have been at the polling stations every week with the last government

Farage has said "We are taking them down one by one" - he's right. I think Reform and their backers will do this to the entire government and either force a GE or just win the next one.

It's becoming inevitable that Reform will get in, set fire to regulatory rules and fuck the country up.

For what it’s worth I don’t trust Farage either. I trust none of them to run our country properly without doing their dodgy deals.

A general election would be a good idea.

Just proves it don’t matter where you came from once you’re part of the goverment you’re all as bad as each other!