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.

[sst1234]

Rayner is a gift to the Tories. The battle in the Labour Party just began. The leader tried to fire her, the hard left got her promoted. Here’s to the soap opera that is Labour Party imploding. Nice work and a lesson in how not become electable.

[PostLockdownLife]

I suspect it wasn't just Momentum, they have a donor linked to Mandelson, Angela promotes what he wants.

[Thymeout]

I've always had a lot of time for Angela Rayner. She gives a brilliant, heart-felt barnstorming speech. She was in Corbyn's cabinet, but didn't join in the cultish follow-my-Leader devotion of the true believers. Unlike Rebecca Long-Bailey, she can think for herself.

But Election co-ordinator/Party chair is a back-room job. It involves skills that don't come naturally to her and for which she has had no training or experience. She wasn't appointed for aptitude but as part of a trade-off to keep the Corbyn left on board in the power struggle to dismantle the anti-semitic snake-pit that was Labour HQ.

No way would Starmer have been so stupid as to sack someone so popular throughout the Party, just at the time when her voice as a Northern working-class woman was thought to be crucial in re- engaging the Red Wall. But someone saw an opportunity to stir some shit, give the Corbyn left a cause to rally behind and wrong-foot Starmer.

And here we are. A day of rumour blown up into headlines, completely overshadowing what little good news there was for Labour to celebrate - the West Yorkshire and West of England mayoralties and Wales.

[Youarecountingonme]

thyme Spot on, that is how I feel too.

[SofiaMichelle]

No way would Starmer have been so stupid as to sack someone so popular throughout the Party, just at the time when her voice as a Northern working-class woman was thought to be crucial in re- engaging the Red Wall.

And there we are again.

I'm working class and in a northern, former 'red wall' area, as are others on this thread.

As we keep saying, Rayner is not who we aspire to be. She's the antithesis of what people want. I don't know anyone up here who thinks differently.

It's patronising as fuck to think that her presence somehow makes Labour more attractive to the thick northerners.

[Youarecountingonme]

I think you have totally misunderstood sofia It has nothing to do with being aspirational to northern women, but aspirational to ALL women that have had a difficult start in life, and can not imagine how they can become more successful and powerful.

Of course there are plenty of women much more intelligent and a better fit for her job all over the country including the North, but in the same way the government encourages people from all walks of life, so will the opposition. It is called diversity. I think you are focusing way too much on the fact she is from the North. And unkind anyway to assume she is 'thick' as she is anything but if you actually listen to her!

[Mintjulia]

Labour's attitude as above is bizarre.

What relevance is it that she's northern or a single mum or a working woman. All that is completely valueless if she can't do her job.

She was there to run a campaign to support their election and she was hopeless. The campaign was between dire and invisible. So of course she should've replaced by someone competent.
This is why I can't vote Labour. They'll choose someone for PM because he's a 'good union man' and ignore the fact that he has all the charm of a slug, the electorate loath him and he's crap at the job.
With a policy like that, sorry. Labour deserve to lose.They only have themselves to blame

[Youarecountingonme]

It didn't used to be the case mint but since the new woke agenda appeared so have all the other stipulations.
It is not enough to just be good at your job anymore, you need to tick other boxes as well. And the LP are far from the only ones doing it, you can see the same thing being rolled out across lots of different companies. I don't think it is a bad thing if it makes a company/party more inclusive and diverse, it can become negative if you are securing your position just for that reason.

I think the tories do it to some degree too. I am sure Theresa May would not have seen the light of day had she not been a woman. She was bloody hopeless. Embarrassingly bad. So it is cross party certainly, and no reason to be smug I would suggest.

[sst1234]

@Youarecountingonme

I think you have totally misunderstood sofia It has nothing to do with being aspirational to northern women, but aspirational to ALL women that have had a difficult start in life, and can not imagine how they can become more successful and powerful.

Of course there are plenty of women much more intelligent and a better fit for her job all over the country including the North, but in the same way the government encourages people from all walks of life, so will the opposition. It is called diversity. I think you are focusing way too much on the fact she is from the North. And unkind anyway to assume she is 'thick' as she is anything but if you actually listen to her!

I don’t the poster is focusing on her being from the North. It’s the Labour Party itself. Isn’t that why there is furore over her sacking.
As people have said over and over and over and over on this thread she does not inspire the northern working class women, or majority or women any where for that matter. You can find her inspiring, of course. Doesn’t mean that will get Labour elected because so many people are so out off by her.

[TomatoesAreFruit]

@Youarecountingonme

Really? why not? You think Blair is authentic or Starmer? I guess not. So who is in your eyes?

These things really do matter. Being honest about who you are, your roots and your difficulties. It takes courage. Especially in today's world.

Sorry to quote a post from yesterday, but this is rubbish. Politics should not be like the x-factor where contestants need to tell their sob story at every opportunity to be 'authentic'.

I want competent Labour politicians who understand issues that effect every day people, education, employment rights, housing, caring responsibilities and health care (but not in a everyone who works for the NHS are saints way).

I want labour politicians to have an aspirational vision - labour voters want nice houses and a good standard of living like everyone else.

I want labour politicians to leave twitter because it doesn't represent what their core voters think and it is seeped in identity politics.

I don't care if they are authentic- I want them to be winners.

[Mintjulia]

But OP, being able to do the job is still the basic requirement without which Labour will never win anything.
Only once ability is established. concerns about image or PC value can come into play.

Thank God my employer, my health authority, my son's school have more competent selection processes than the Labour Party, or Life would be very scary indeed.

[Mintjulia]

Well said tomatoes

[Livoey]

I don’t get the view that the “voice of a working class man/woman” is needed to re-engage the “red wall” voters who’ve abandoned the party. Those voters have just been engaged by a posh, Eton educated toff.

The big difference is that Boris actually has a positive vision for the future of Britain. OK, that vision is largely bullshit and built on sand, and probably won’t ever come to pass. However, it’s preferable to no vision at all.

I say this as a Labour voter; the party urgently needs to present the country with an clear idea of what they want this country to be post Brexit and how they intend to achieve it. If their message is good, it doesn’t matter if it’s delivered by a working class single parent or a member of the aristocracy.

[Youarecountingonme]

tomatoes no chance at all as things stand. Just look at how Starmer is running the party, he sacked AR only to reinstate her and give her three new jobs. Is this a man that has a clear vision? Direction? Strategy? Nope. Is there any prospect whatsoever of a better version of him? Ditto. LP are finished I am afraid.

[korawick12345]

@Youarecountingonme

It didn't used to be the case mint but since the new woke agenda appeared so have all the other stipulations.
It is not enough to just be good at your job anymore, you need to tick other boxes as well. And the LP are far from the only ones doing it, you can see the same thing being rolled out across lots of different companies. I don't think it is a bad thing if it makes a company/party more inclusive and diverse, it can become negative if you are securing your position just for that reason.

I think the tories do it to some degree too. I am sure Theresa May would not have seen the light of day had she not been a woman. She was bloody hopeless. Embarrassingly bad. So it is cross party certainly, and no reason to be smug I would suggest.

Teresa May is bright woman with a degree from Oxford, a successful career was a senior adviser on international affairs at APACs and also worked at the BoE. She may not have been a very good PM but she is no way comparable to Angela Rayner!

[MondayYogurt]

I look back on the days of Teresa May and think, actually, at least she wasn't corrupt. At least she wasn't a buffoon.

[Youarecountingonme]

You seem entirely incapable of understanding why we should have a diverse range of people representing us as MPs, so I am giving up. There is simply no point trying to explain the importance of representation and diversity - whether it is race, class, gender, age and background to someone who just wants more grey suits from Oxford. Pointless.

[Andante57]

I don’t get the view that the “voice of a working class man/woman” is needed to re-engage the “red wall” voters who’ve abandoned the party. Those voters have just been engaged by a posh, Eton educated toff

This. Where MPs went to school seems to be an obsession with various Labour supporters, including plenty on here and Guardian journalists who were privately educated themselves.
Evidently most voters don’t care.

[korawick12345]

@Youarecountingonme

You seem entirely incapable of understanding why we should have a diverse range of people representing us as MPs, so I am giving up. There is simply no point trying to explain the importance of representation and diversity - whether it is race, class, gender, age and background to someone who just wants more grey suits from Oxford. Pointless.

What you don't seem to understand is that none of those factors should trump actual education, skill and knowledge. None of those factors 'race, class, gender, age and background" preclude someone from being, intelligent, knowledgeable, skilled, professional, experienced etc The fact is Angela Rayner is IMO none of those things. Alan Johnson on the other hand was a brilliant politician, intelligent, thoughtful, professional and very very skilled despite having had an extremely difficult life.

[Tanith]

“ They'll choose someone for PM because he's a 'good union man' and ignore the fact that he has all the charm of a slug, the electorate loath him and he's crap at the job.”

Ian Duncan Smith, William Hague, Michael Gove...

[Youarecountingonme]

I think AR does have those qualities, so we will have to agree to disagree won't we!

[3asAbird]

I agree i had such a soft spot for him and loved him on this week.
An ex postman.

I don't give a monkeys about where they born grew up their personal life its are they a good politician.
A good politician to me means being good down to earth communicator, honest, good ideas broad appeal.
To me Angela raynor is very niche..
Shes always so angry and negative.
The pictures of her and kier for Mavin rees Bristol mayoral election were embarrassing.

[korawick12345]

@Youarecountingonme

I think AR does have those qualities, so we will have to agree to disagree won't we!

Yet your OP was about her being inspiring because she was single wc mother at 16 - everything to do with her 'identity' nothing to do with her skills. Not to mention the imaginary degree you credit her with!

[korawick12345]

Loved Alan Johnson. Diane Abbott is another example, can't stand her personally as a politician but one look at her background will tell you that she is an intelligent skilled woman who has overcome huge barriers and achieved a great deal. And when I say I can't stand her personally as a politician I mean I don't agree with her politics rather than her as a person!