Angela Rayner sacked [shock]

[Youarecountingonme]

So Keir Starmer chooses the one shining light in the labour party. A single mother at sixteen, the most inspiring story to come out of the Labour party. Anyone that has listened to Angela about her struggles to obtain a degree and to better herself. Starmer chooses her as the whipping girl for his failures and has sacked her as co-ordinator. He can't remove her as deputy, but how much longer is that position tenable?
I am genuinely shocked and horrified. The failures of the labour party on are on HIM. He should be resigning.

Absolutely livid. What has the Labour party come to.

So if there are threats to Rayner's safety the public have to pay for her first-class travel but if women don't want to give predatory men access to female spaces then those women are bigots. Perhaps Angela is a bigot to assume that a would-be assailant could only afford a second-class ticket. Perhaps the ticket-inspector who asks the second-class ticket-holder to leave Angela's first-class carriage is gatekeeping scum. It's very telling that she's happy for money to exclude people from safer spaces, but not biological sex. She'd whack you on the head with her Star Wars heels to be the first in the lifeboat.

The timing and leaks about the sacking are the main issue for me. Starmer must have known this would cause ructions and accusations of him scapegoating. The fact some Labour MPs are now saying it wasn't a sacking but a promotion to a post no-one knows yet is farcical. What a mess on a day when Labour could have been talking up success in Wales, Greater Manchester, Salford etc and what they could learn from those. I vote Labour but despair of them at the moment.

If Keir Starmer had announced a reshuffle next week with everyone's new post stated at the same time, no-one would have really noticed. Terrible own goal.

"People who did the right things in the right order generally have an easier time of it and better options".

No one is disputing that. But in most cases, life is unpredictable. Even the ones who do things in the right order.. later on the line, they are either divorced, Illness, mental health deterioration, a death of a loved one. Life is not all sunshine or roses. I'm saying that people who have hardships in their lives, appeal to me more, because what they have overcomed and let's face it- the barriers they have faced and still be able to achieve is commendable.

It appears that people in the professional capacity have helped you and supported you- that's very good. But you have no idea what those one really thought of you and let's face it teen/young mums do get judged, it's just not in your face as it once was.

The woman is not good at her job and I don't think she needs to keep bringing up on the fact that she had a child at 16 and did XYZ. That was ages ago now- you are grown woman, stop bringing up your last and move on.

What I'm upset more is that some posters on Mumsnet appear to condem a person by a choice they made at 16. Judge the person now! Not what they did 20 years ago-- unless they haven't changed.

@itsgettingwierd Agree about Ashworth. Seems like a sensible, down to earth sort of man.

Apparently Jonathan Ashworth is being demoted too. Angela Rayner didn't choose an ardent remainer as a candidate in an area which voted 70% voted Leave, that was Keir Starmer's office, ridiculous choice.

@billysboy

Labour are on a fools errand at the moment as they are trying to be two things , a proportion of their traditional working class voters all voted for brexit whereas their London people opposed it They are a split party

Perhaps one way to move forwards would be if they thought about the rest of London, then? Their 'london people' definitely don't represent or give two hoots about the very many less privileged Londoners. Then again, why would they. The Labour 'London people' so often aren't actual Londoners and they leave once they've had enough.

Secular - Dismissing everyone who does ‘the right things in the right order’ boring is judgemental and intolerant. You are writing off a large percentage of the population.

@Violetparis

Apparently Jonathan Ashworth is being demoted too. Angela Rayner didn't choose an ardent remainer as a candidate in an area which voted 70% voted Leave, that was Keir Starmer's office, ridiculous choice.

He's clearly a big step up from Raynor, Abbott, Long Bailey etc. I don't think he is anything special but more the standard you would expect from all Labour MPs.

I don't like Angela Raynor or rate her as a politician, but the snobbery surrounding her getting pregnant at 16 is pretty vile.

@SunsetBeetch

I don't like Angela Raynor or rate her as a politician, but the snobbery surrounding her getting pregnant at 16 is pretty vile.

No more vile than her calling people ‘scum’ for their electoral choices. So if she can dish it out….

I do find it rather repellent that some people are choosing to paint her as an incompetent that finds herself appointed only because she was sixteen and pregnant and a self starter, if you had taken the time to listen to her life story you may well come to a different view

Its pretty much impossible to spend much time listening to her without hearing that life story. She is by no means the first teenage parent in politics, but gods does she make an issue of it.

Its to her credit that she built a career through a different path, its not unique or rare though and most women do it without pulling down other women. She was party chair responsible for elections, campaigning and election process which was handled dismally. There wasn't even a message. At the very least she is in the wrong role. Making potentially slanderous statements about the opposing candidate and marching round calling people "Tory scum" sounds more like student politics than someone aiming for high office.
There is a difference between being a "gobby woman" and just plain poorly prepared.

In education I thought the ideas about lifelong education could really get traction but she never seemed to develop them - I though she might promote the very successful WEP model and expand it but it never seemed to go beyond soundbites. She was supposed to be the bridge between left and right of the party - another failure although frankly I can't see anyone doing that in the current state of the party.

I don't care either than she travels first class. Its work travel, usually working in transit. However I note her justification was not "because we need work space and power points" but rather bizarrely on grounds of safety - presumably common WC attackers don't use first class. I note also her willingness to deny that safety to other women. Like Thatcher - she is absolutely no friend to women so why should I cut her slack because just she's a "sister"?

@Violetparis

The timing and leaks about the sacking are the main issue for me. Starmer must have known this would cause ructions and accusations of him scapegoating. The fact some Labour MPs are now saying it wasn't a sacking but a promotion to a post no-one knows yet is farcical. What a mess on a day when Labour could have been talking up success in Wales, Greater Manchester, Salford etc and what they could learn from those. I vote Labour but despair of them at the moment.

I agree. There was a general assumption that there would be a shadow cabinet reshuffle after the election - nothing unusual about that. Rayner was certainly in the wrong job, she had previously done better in other roles.

Leaking information early, the usual journalists primed with stories and claims from "sources" ready to go, all the old dinosaurs of the left all ready with their prepared statements - it only damages any hope of building unity in the party and Starmer in particular.

The factions are so entrenched its like living through the 80s again with Starmer likely to be in the Kinnock role and Labour out of power for another decade.

'People who did things the "right things, in the right order" bore me to death and are not interesting/ let's face it.'

So, to be interesting you have to have been involved in violence, domestic abuse, drugs, do badly in education? Otherwise you're just boring?

I would be totally furious if I was AR, she did not choose the Hartlepool candidate that was Keir Starmer, and the people of Hartlepool will have been insulted to be offered a remainer in a 70% leave area, proving that Keir Starmer has absolutely no idea how deep the feeling runs, and proves he is entirely out of touch. Again from his North London bolthole.

I think Andy Burnham should go for the job, he could not be any worse.

www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/labour-hartlepool-election-brexit-b1841716.html

A little ray of sunshine in our darkening world.
Chipping Norton, home to Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson, Rebeca Wade, The Goves and so on. Council result Labour Win.

long And that is why I love England!!

The females holding leadership roles in the Labour Party, past and present rally do not do anything to either inspire confidence in the Party or "rise up" women leaders in the wider economy.

Any of these women in my personal experience would be sidelined in non public sector leadership roles...they really are shocking

I thought she was sacked as deputy leader. No such luck. Sigh.

@longwayoff

A little ray of sunshine in our darkening world. Chipping Norton, home to Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson, Rebeca Wade, The Goves and so on. Council result Labour Win.

Next up, Osborne's stomping ground of Bruton?

[quote Youarecountingonme]I would be totally furious if I was AR, she did not choose the Hartlepool candidate that was Keir Starmer, and the people of Hartlepool will have been insulted to be offered a remainer in a 70% leave area, proving that Keir Starmer has absolutely no idea how deep the feeling runs, and proves he is entirely out of touch. Again from his North London bolthole.

I think Andy Burnham should go for the job, he could not be any worse.

www.independent.co.uk/independentpremium/voices/labour-hartlepool-election-brexit-b1841716.html[/quote]
Rest assured, she is permanently furious (and nasty), she doesn’t need an excuse.

Again from his North London bolthole.

Yeah cos it really would've made a difference if he was living in his home town... The Labour leader living in a part of the UK blighted by knife and gun crime did not affect the Hartlepool result.

With the right policies and campaign, it doesn't matter where the party leader lives.

That would cheer me Tealights it's a place I find overwhelmingly depressing. Must be the proximity of Rees Moggs. Can't understand it's new found popularity.

I would be totally furious if I was AR, she did not choose the Hartlepool candidate that was Keir Starmer, and the people of Hartlepool will have been insulted to be offered a remainer in a 70% leave area, proving that Keir Starmer has absolutely no idea how deep the feeling runs, and proves he is entirely out of touch. Again from his North London bolthole.

Party chair has responsibility and oversight of local parties and election process. Oh yes that's Angela.