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.

I agree OP. Very sad to see her go. She had achieved so much against such poor odds.

I agree with you. People had it in for her and there was a concerted effort to dig up dirt on her to put her back in her place.

Please point to evidence of any of those people you cite berating others for their poor behaviour and calling for their resignations?

Angela Rayner's X feed is packed to the brim.

You reap what you sow.

Based on the information provided by the client. They don’t know how many houses someone owns - it is something you, as client, have to tell them.

How?

She was advised to seek specialist advice and she didn't

She did what she would have crucified a Tory for doing.

And I genuinely think there's more to come

Being from the working class doesn't make you honest.

She was over-promoted because of her background- a complete embarrassment
There are working class women in politics who are able to remain professional when put on the defensive, and have been promoted on talent alone
Unfortunately for you, Op, these women often lean right- so they don't count, I guess.
Same for ethnic background: succcessful black and Asian members of the Tory party are there through merit
BAME on the left invariably means good optics.

It really didn't take much effort

Yet other people manage to understand it.

I wasn't meaning free, necessarily, more that there should be advice available via government channels that covered all these bases.

I agree, I really liked the way she spoke about her struggles as a very young mum and how much Sure Start helped her with her parenting. I think she did the right thing by resigning and returning to the back benches. I can only imagine the stress she has been under, she is loathed in the right wing media which dominate discourse in this country and it must be overwhelming to be hounded so relentlessly on a daily basis. The coverage in the Mail is dripping with vindictive misogyny and classism. To have risen to the office of Deputy PM with all the disadvantages she has faced is indicative of real talent. When I look back at the worst excesses of the Johnson regime, for example Pritti Patel being found responsilbe for bullying staff and Johnson continued to back her and told MPs to "for a square around the Prittser" Patel breached the Ministerial Code but was protected and stayed on, Angela Rayner breached the same code and resigned. She acted correctly and I do not think this the end of her career

Good riddance to the Vicky Pollard of Westminster. Uneducated and uncouth.

Why are the left so obsessed with identity politics? Like it somehow makes up for the fact that she’s a rotten, corrupt politician? Her background is irrelevant. She’s not fit to serve.

Kemi Badendoch is there on merit?!

This advice is available for free on the HMRC website. Anyone competent to be a government minister could and would have found it with ease. Equally, ChatGPT or Grok, both freely available also, could have told her. Besides, why should highly paid government ministers also enjoy free legal advice on entirely personal matters? Any average person would have to get this right or face paying a penalty and interest on the underpaid sum. It’s not as though only a politician would face consequences!

Simple solution: don't have any dirt to dig up. Follow the law and live your life with good morality and ethics.

That's some chip on your shoulder there 😆

My solicitor, but based on the information I’d told them in an incredibly straight forward set of circumstances. If my affairs were complex enough to warrant a trust (that I would’ve taken advice on to set up anyway) or I had any sort of link to another property I would have mentioned it and I don’t doubt they would have stated the assumptions of their advice and recommended I get detailed advice from a specialist. Then I would’ve done that.

Tax is really complicated and once your affairs are complicated AND you’re a cabinet minister you should be going over and above to make sure you’re compliant with the law.

As a non SDLT tax expert, if a client came to me with this fact pattern it would be immediately obvious to me that they needed bespoke SDLT advice but that the starting point was that they probably had an SDLT issue.

So the “dirt” was ok then?

Why do you think she’s there?

It’s not the Left who characterise Rayner as common, thick, rough….

True . Can’t stand him and he let down the people of Gaza. Glad he is being replaced but wish was was out of government .

She should be made an example of as should anyone who has defrauded the country.
Her mate Rachel is trying to get as much as she can from ordinary folk so Rayner is absolutely taking the mick.
She probably rushed that purchase because she knows Reeves is probably going to increase stamp duty.

Me too, and I’m also awkwardly aware of my likely bias. She was genuinely my favourite politician of all time. The media jumped all over this story and loved every second of trying to hound her out. It put me in a mood when I found out she’d gone, and then straight after that news the radio was raving about the Reform party conference. God bloody help us. Had my first serious chat with my partner yesterday evening about plans to move abroad in a few years if it looks like Reform will get in (we have been saving for this exact sort of catastrophe). Genuinely frightened of what is going to happen over the next few years but trying to keep myself positive with all my silly little hobbies like trying to do some gardening and knitting a blanket for the cat that she’ll definitely either ignore or shred

I can’t stand here - always bleating on about how we should being paying more benefits - but only if someone else is paying for it. Not her.

Yes of course. But I also feel extremely curious about why.

ETA: If she’d waited till her son was 18 (soon) the rules would be different, apparently. So why didn’t she?