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.

Yes possibly the worst thing she has done, the tax can be paid but a reputation is much harder to repair, as AR will find out.

If you mess up, stop digging and accept responsibility.

She will pay the tax, might have to pay a fine too, that's not the issue anymore, her reputation and credibility is in tatters, no one will take any notice of her now, she should gave apologised and resigned immediately instead of trying to put the blame on. Innocent people.

If I'm going to be impressed by anyone it's Joanna Verrico who put out a clear and unambiguous statement when being used as a scapegoat by someone in a high position of government power.

What makes you say Angela Rayner is ‘thick’? I’d say she’s actually quite intelligent and the opposite of thick. I also think it’s quite rude to call her thick - it‘s very personal and quite a cruel insult.

People aren’t sticking up for KB because she lies! Re the lie she recently told about apparently getting into Stanford in the US to study medicine (which was easily debunked by the Guardian).

She has achieved the almost impossible and I had great respect for her but unfortunately she has been extremely vocal and aggressive when the Tory's have done anything similar.

She can't say that Tory's should be sacked and taken to court for fraud and then game the system, without expecting to be torn apart.

If you hold a position of trust, and are in the spotlight, she must be daft or think she is above the law to risk all she had for £40k of course the press are watching every MP to wait for them to make a "mistake "

What would you expect her to say? It's politcal caviar when an opponent breaks the rules. It's expected and encouraged to go for the jugular.

Labour always has to be held to higher standards because of their core values. The Tories can sleazebag away to their hearts content (and have done since their inception in 1834) because the people who vote for them do so largely through self interest. Such as lower taxes and better returns on their investments. They aren't interested in morals. The screw is turned even further for a female Labour politician for obvious age old misogynistic reasons. I'm a Labour voter and yes OP, I am really saddened by every aspect of the whole thing.

How do you feel about Rayner trying to throw a small female run and owned conveyancing firm under the bus to save her skin?

No she didn't take advice. She said she did, but didn't.

She was found to have broken the Ministerial Code. She had to go.

Very bad indeed. That's why I said that Labour has to be held to higher standards than the Tories. The latter having generally been held to very low standards and notoriously embroiled in sleaze, corruption, sex scandals et al on a record beating level. I said I was deeply saddened by every aspect of this affair, which I am.

Labour held themselves out as being the no sleaze party pre-election, so if people are more disappointed in them than they would be with the Tories, this is a good reason.

As a working class and northern woman I am disappointed in her. Despite being vocal about other politicians not paying tax she became a compete hypocrite. Calling others out but doing the same thing as them is reprehensible

This is what she said in her statement of 3rd Sept:

When purchasing the property my understanding, on advice from lawyers, was that my circumstances meant I was liable for the standard rate of stamp duty.

However, given the recent allegations in the press I have subsequently sought further advice from a leading tax counsel to review that position and to ensure I am fully compliant with all tax provisions. I have now been advised that although I did not own any other property at the time of the purchase, the application of complex deeming provisions which relate to my son’s trust gives rise to additional stamp duty liabilities. I acknowledge that due to my reliance on advice from lawyers which did not properly take account of these provisions, I did not pay the appropriate stamp duty at the time of the purchase. I am working with expert lawyers and with HMRC to resolve the matter and pay what is due.

She repeated the same to Beth Rigby of Sky News. It's so vague (possibly deliberately so, I certainly accept that) one could argue that it doesn't really throw anyone in particular under the bus - more a generic and vague 'lawyers', which of course then proved to be far from a credible defence and indeed kicked off its own trail of issues.

I don’t think she did. It was the media who named the firm not Rayner.

I agree. It’s a shame. And that’s from someone that really could not warm to her, nor would ever vote labour.

I'm more central with my political views but really admired Angela and so disappointed in what happened.
There was a thread yesterday about her and some of the posts were downright nasty, I had to leave and resisted commenting.
Nice to see this one though 👌 😊

She is probably a Conservative voting "sleaze bag" and thus deserved it. You can't make this shit up can you?

Yes, of course the claim would be assessed, Streeting and others did the media round repeating the ‘bad advice’ defence. Shoosmiths and Verrico were right to respond.

She tried to deflect onto the people who advised her and it backfired.

Then they threw themselves under the bus, didn’t they?

Can you imagine the stress of it? No powerful gov machine behind you, your business on the line. Good for the MD for acting swiftly.

The gloating, and the gleeful tone about her wage reduction, in various newspapers today (eg the Telegraph) is making me feel very, very uneasy.
I’m not enjoying any part of this.

The gloating and mocking at Truss and Kwarteng was a hundred times this and they hadn't even been dishonest, but Tories so no-one felt "uneasy" at the treatment of a woman and a man from a minority group.

a man from a minority group.

And old Etonian.

Totally different situation with Truss and Kwarteng IMO.

Truss and Kwarteng’s main mistake was to seriously damage the economy - and I’d suggest we’re still feeling the consequences of that today, and will do for some time to come.

They did a lot of damage, all whilst blaming everyone else apart from themselves, and Truss continues to make money from blaming others even now, almost 3 years later. So, given that, I think it’s entirely fair that the media gloated after Truss sacked Kwarteng and then left herself.