I feel sad about Angela Rayner

[Neededa]

OK, I am left leaning so maybe I am already biased, BUT, I do feel sad that a woman who overcame early issues, who was “proper” working class, who didn’t speak the kings English, but rather with a proper local dialect, and achieved a high office without a single spoon in her working class mouth, has gone.

i do understand that many people will agree with what has happened. I would have been fuming if the story played out the way it had as a different party, and I understand that Angela had to go, BUT as a woman who believes in holding up other women, particularly those who aren’t born to certain families, or have expectations placed on them from word go, I do feel a bit sad this morning.

There was a working class woman in the House of Commons. A working class woman was the deputy prime minister of this country. It is not even 100 years since working class women could vote. I feel sad.

She was my MP before I moved. She was great before she got into government but the power seemed to go to her head. Not approachable anymore. Her own fault for taking the piss which she has done massively already with expenses.

I'm sure many MPs (and many more prominent people really) have pulled a fast one when it comes to their financial affairs, but they're just more adept at covering their tracks. But there is the DEI issue - she may have been over- promoted too soon because the optics were better for Labour, desperate to reconnect with its working-class roots.

Appologies. My auto correct defaults to Lawrie. Proofreading fail. But hey, I do know how to spell Rayner.

Maybe you support the wrong party? The Tories have had 4 female leaders vs labour’s none. Two non-white leaders vs Labour’s none. Both have had 7 state educated leaders since ww2. Although Starmer’s school was independent when he was older.

No, I don't feel sorry for her. The non-payment of tax is bad enough as is her being so stupid as to not take expert tax advice when recommended by her conveyancer (she in fact could have just googled it!). For me, the fact that she has over-valued her 25% stake in the Ashton Under Lyne house, then sold it to her disabled son's trust fund is the most despicable of acts. I hope she is held to account and removed as a trustee.
She's certainly not fit for public office.

Her achievement.

It’s hard to destroy the country in one year. More likely we are still feeling the consequences of a decade of austerity and the mostly self serving financial decisions made by BoJo and his team during the pandemic. Covid contracts anyone?

Side note; the number of local businesses that are seriously corrupt is getting out of hand. Using shell companies to avoid tax. (Company one goes bust while owning lots of tax, company two buys back company ones assets and continues as if nothing ever happened) People who took bounce back loans and used them for personal purchases etc

I feel sorry for the genuine business owners that do everything by the book and are struggling in the current climate.

But in the actual point. I think it’s very sad that the papers went after her from day one because she is a working class woman. If she has a private school background they would target someone else. It exposes how behind the scenes it is still the upper classes running the top jobs. She was naive, should have been more careful, and did have to go.

The papers love the whole Lammy/Mike Pence bromance so the new appointment shows our current close ties with America.

If the Conservatives hadn’t sucked all the money out of local councils, especially labour ones, and increased the national debt, and done nothing to tackle immigration except headline grabbing nonsense would we really be in this position?

Starmer is very popular with world leaders, and has a much better relationship with Macron so he might have more influence on the French to tighten borders.

I’m working class and I and many others think she’s awful. There was hope that labour would be different, seems not.

This! It stinks! If she had been a tory, male the story would have disappeared. There is no way the Telegraph and the right wing rags would have forced the issue in the way that they have.

That’s not true.

She was advised to seek expert tax advice twice. She decided not to and pay the lower estimate of stamp duty.

Her downfall is her own.

Yes, she had an emotional connection for many voters because of her background…but in the end, her story ended the same way as the Tory sleaze MPs. Why? Because she was a hypocrite, out for herself and entitled.

No I don’t feel sorry for her. She took the piss and got found out.

But she called that behaviour out, and Labour sold themselves as being better - that’s the hypocrisy and why people feel let down.

It damages people’s faith in politics and hands a win to Farage.

You say this, but Boris Johnson is a highly educated man and far from the bumbling idiot he pretends to be and he made enough collosal fuck ups. Though the difference is I don't believe Angela Rayner is quite so entirely morally bankrupt, so there's that.

Sir Laurie Magnus read the letters recommending she seek specialist tax advice about the Trust. He said she did not take that advice (and she should have).

She was Housing Secretary!

A. It would not have disappeared
B. I don't recall any 'Tory male' flinging insults at others and calling them scum then doing the same thing themselves.
Hypocrisy is the issue here, not discrimination because she's a woman, WC, Labour etc.
Just Hypocrisy. It's quite simple.

seriously, can you imagine the outcry if a senior Tory referred to ‘Labour scum’. There is no way they have been able to remain in post.

Honest? She sold her 25% stake in the house to her son's trust fund at any over inflated price. She's not fit to be a trustee or an MP. Despicable behaviour.

Te be fair, it does say something about her integrity. It says she didn’t have any.

But yes, exactly. She knew she’d been advised to take specialist tax advice, and she knew she hadn’t. But she made public statements saying she had. She, or Starmer, deceived other ministers into repeating that lie. Even after a KC she (or Starmer…) engaged reviewed her case and had told her she had more to pay she hung on. It was only once she’d seen the report that she resigned. And only then because if she hadn’t she would have been sacked.

No no. Not explaining myself well.

If you paint yourself as being morally superior to the Tories, you’d better make sure you are. She wasn’t. She did do the right thing in resigning fairly smartly. She’ll be back, I have no doubt.

I also think that Labour voters are less forgiving of moral failings whereas Tory voters are less idealistic and more pragmatic? More inclined to shrug off mistakes? We know that the left are very much in sway to groupthink and wrongthink. The left are also not exactly great at treating women equally.

I think it's sad that as a working class, left, female politician, she had an opportunity to show how it should be done, but has just done exactly what most of the male, white, right politicians do.

She's ruined a fantastic opportunity, and shown the Left is no different to the Right in terms of the ability to be led by greed and personal gain.

No I don't feel sad or sorry at all. She knew what she was doing. All those supporting her would be baying for blood if she'd been a Tory, and you know it.

I don't think she was fit to hold office anyway. Questionable background and intelligence and clearly promoted based on characteristics rather than aptitude.

I guess the legendary ‘critical thinking’ of the left that we’re always being told on here about isn’t something that applies to her

I don’t know…I get not wanting everyone being an Oxbridge grad, but surely there has to be some middle ground? AR is so uncouth—calling people “scum” as an elected official? Come on now. There are thousands of capable people in society who weren’t privately/Oxbridge educated, yet seem perfectly capable of behaving like professionals in their professions. She’s a sad little caricature and I find her offensive.

Joe Wicks is a perfect example…born to a teen mum with mental health challenges, and had a dad with a drug addiction problem. Made something of himself and is a true gentleman who is capable of communicating with the wider community in an inoffensive manner. Love that man.

It's sad she achieved all that then couldn't resist getting her snout into the trough. What a disappointment she turned out to be.

Evidence for the “over inflated price” please.