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.

[TedImgoingmad]

He will never be PM as England has issues with people of colour.

I'm a person of colour, and have had a successful life and career from an immigrant/working class background. All in England. It's this sort of shite that has made Labour unelectable.

[MaggieFS]

What's more depressing is that post-Corbyn, Labour should be able to clean up. There's so much dissatisfaction with the Tories too, the door should be wide open for a decent middle ground party leader.

[Blueberry40]

I feel exactly the same. Just a big horror show, don’t recognise or relate to the labour party any more

[BackforGood]

But she was only sacked from being the campaign coordinator? So it was literally her job to run the campaign and apparently she did a terrible job in Hartlepool?
The fact she was a teen mother and has an inspiring story doesn’t make her good at her job or give her the right to stay in a job she cannot actually do.

This ^ that PlanDeRaccordement said on P1, and I agree fully with Tealightsandd that I wish the media would focus FAR less on "personalities" or "what the politician is wearing" or "what their background is" or even "what they dance like" and take more time to publish, and - if necessary - explain policies and actually encourage debate about what is being promised and what that actually means.

[Tealightsandd]

@Guavafish

KS is the leader without direction. He was unappealing, too london centric, remained and part of the woke culture!

There hasn't been a London centric leader of either main party for decades. Not for the people of London, at least. As a place to make money (before fucking off to the countryside), maybe.

Keir isn't the best but he could have potential. His main problem is the rest of the party. There isn't enough decent Labour MPs to enable him to get the backbone he needs. He can't do it without support. There's a few good ones but they're in the minority.

Andy Burnham. Hope not. Haven't we had enough fake style over substance, divisive identity politics?

[Dee1975]

Being a single mother at sixteen doesn't make you any more over or under qualified to do the job. So unsure why that that’s in your opening post op. Why should that make a difference in weather you do your job well or not?
Clearly KS felt she didn’t do well as chair as the party. So that’s why she was sacked I assume

[twelly]

At present there has been no press release - this has been leaked to the press. I think Keir Starmer has had a difficult task - the pandemic means that in opposition you have to support much of the government policy as we have a national emergency. I think KS would make a very good PM - he is not all image, we need substance not image.

[RedToothBrush]

A single mother at sixteen, the most inspiring story to come out of the Labour party.

Yes but was she any good at her job???

Unfortunately this is where there is a disconnect between Labour Idealists and the General Voting Public. The General Public aren't really that interested in identity politics. What they want is someone who is good at that job.

It hard to argue that Rayner was good at Campaign Manager when the message that the public have got, by the admission of even Labour Die Hards like Owen Jones, is that they don't know what Labour stands for any more.

The problem with identity politics is its massively superficial and doesn't get to the heart of problems. It merely starts witch hunts against people who don't say the right thing on the basis of identity.

What was the thread about again? Oh yes, about how Labour should keep someone who under performed in their job doing the same job just because she happens to tick the right boxes and how awful Starmer is for sacking her for doing a bad job. Which kind of demonstrates my point fairly well.

[secular39]

@Viviennemary

I would hardly call getting pregnant at 16 inspirational. Sorry. That's what's wrong with the Labour party these days. They don't understand how people think.

Her being pregnant at 16 is not inspirational. Her becoming a mother at a very young age, and her making her way to become a politician demonstrates resilience and that is inspirational. Comments like yours expect young mothers to fail.

Anyway- that doesn't give her a pass to be not good at the job.

[PostLockdownLife]

I am not a member of the Church of England, the man has a right to his religious beliefs and not share beliefs about God making mistakes with souls and bodies, people like Angela insist he believe in.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9557845/School-reports-chaplain-telling-pupils-theyre-allowed-disagree-LGBT-teaching.html

[RoseBearx]

Starmer has the personality of a wet sock. Labour went from a controversial character with extreme views such as Corbyn to an extremely monotone, uninspiring individual. They clearly thought that because Corbyn’s views were so far-left and that hadn’t worked, that they’d be better off going for a run of the mill, uninspiring leader who drones on and says a lot while actually saying nothing. Idiotic behaviour. Anybody who is currently in that party is a disgrace IMO. Except Andy Burnham, I enjoyed voting for him.

[BronwenFrideswide]

Sacked as campaign manager for doing a piss poor job, why not? AR's approach to campaigning seems to be shouting Tory scum and making false, baseless accusations against the Tory candidate, a modicum of research and she would have had the easily available facts but she was either too lazy or too blinded by hatred against the candidate for being Tory to bother. An accusation I have yet to hear her retract and apologise for.

If Labour are going to dig themselves out of this mess they need grown ups who behave like grown ups not ones who behave like nasty name calling children.

[RoseBearx]

Say what you like about Boris, but he knows full well what he’s doing and how to make the populace like him. The bumbling buffoon act is 100% deliberate and it’s working.

[Dongdingdong]

I couldn’t care less about her life story - or any other politician’s for that matter. Whether she’s from a poor background or a privileged one, if she did a bad job then there should be consequences. End of.

[Tomatel]

I'm struggling to find any evidence to suggest that Angela has a degree of any description.
I'm struggling to understand how you find a woman who is barely able to string a coherent sentence together 'inspirational'.
I'm struggling (massively) to comprehend how this person was Shadow Secretary for Education. That is really scraping the bottom of the barrel.
It seems to me that politics attracts too many people who love the sound of their own voice. All sound and fury signifying nothing. This along with corruption and sleaze repels other decent people from becoming involved. And who can blame them?

[Viviennemary]

A lot of folk including me didn't like Corbyn but at least you knew what he stood for even if you didn't agree with it. They might as well put a cardboard cut out up in parliament instead of KS. Would anybody notice.

[Definately]

@Youarecountingonme

So you don't think Starmer should be taking responsibility for what has happened?

So once Starmer is gone then everyone can say how much they dislike the next Labour leader and couldn't possibly vote for them with X,Y or Z in charge, letting the conservatives in again and again, until the end of time

[korawick12345]

Her having a child at 16 isn’t inspirational it is an example of her terrible decision making. She isn’t an inspiration she is just a woman of below average intelligence who has used the unions as a way to get a job that requires no qualifications but is very well paid and that she would never achieve in the private sector.

[RoseBearx]

And actually, I find Angela to be a hardfaced cow. And I’m not a million miles away from her stomping ground and have the same accent, so it’s nothing to do with snobbery. It’s just the way she presents herself.

Ooh, look at me, I was a single mum at 16 but I’ve done so well for myself and all my constituents who won’t end up as successful as me need me to represent them because I’m the only person who understands them. Oh, did I also mention I was a single mum at 16? Probably like a load on my constituents, look how working class I am!!!

[RoseBearx]

*of my constituents

[korawick12345]

And I am not sure why the op is talking about Rayners struggle to get a degree as far as I can see she left school with no qualifications and pretty much remains in that state bar some sort of social care course she did at an FE college. She has shown no commitment to improving her education level as far as I can see and as I said used the union route up in lieu of any actual knowledge or skill

[LizzieSiddal]

As a northerner, I find her an embarrassment. She can hardly string a sentence together and comes across as always pissed off. Not a great way to attract voters.

[sst1234]

Wonder what Labour HQ make up of it if they see a thread like this. Or memo Erin for that matter. Does it teach them anything about how the public feels about these abysmal characters they keep putting in charge. Probably not.

[PermanentTemporary]

Im glad getting pregnant at 16 hasn't stopped someone having a political career, and I'm sort of glad having shagged everyone in London and fathering X children hasn't stopped Johnson having a political career. But these things aren't assets or positives in themselves.

[Lucidas]

Rayner isn’t exactly inspiring, but let’s also be clear that Starmer’s nondescript, wooden style has marked Labour as devoid of anything interesting to say. They’ve had an open goal in this pandemic, but instead of highlighting the thousands killed by Johnson’s negligence, they’re rabbiting on about how PPE was procured via WhatsApp. Everyone knows the Tories are corrupt. They don’t care.

Limp and insipid.