Ten things we learned about Angela Rayner

In a refreshingly honest interview for Political Thinking with the BBC's Nick Robinson, Labour's deputy leader Angela Rayner talks about how her own experience of poverty has shaped her views on the cost-of-living crisis, her relationship with Labour’s leader Keir Starmer and whether working class politicians need to shout louder about their roots.

Here are ten things we learned about Labour’s number two and one of the House of Commons’ rising stars.

Photos © BBC

“I get a lot of abuse for the way I speak and my background but I also get huge amounts of people saying it’s so refreshing and inspiring to see someone like you in politics that I can look to who reminds me of me,” says Angela.

“I’m sure that’s exactly the same for many people who saw Rishi Sunak become Prime Minister.” She believes his success will inspire others to think, “this is something I can do” and – putting politics aside – “that’s something to celebrate.”

2. She believes representation is important in politics, but comes second to competence

The Labour bench is more diverse than ever, Angela acknowledges, but, although the party is making “great steps”, they want to go further: “When Keir is no longer leader then we do want to have a different leader – someone from a different diverse background.”

However, diversity isn’t everything, she stresses: “Liz Truss was the Prime Minister and that’s great that we had a female Prime Minister but she lasted less than 50 days and has gone down in history as one of the worst… So, representation is important but also competence and people feeling like they’re the right person for the job.”

3. As a child living in poverty, she used to have a bath just once a week

Angela says families struggling to pay energy bills today brings back memories from her own upbringing: “We had an immersion heater. It never went on because it was too expensive. And we had concrete floors and threadbare carpets… We boiled the kettle for things that were needed. We had a deep fat fryer that everything went in to cook.”

Every Sunday they would go to her nanna’s, who lived in a heated high-rise block of flats. There, her nanna would wash their clothes, make them corn beef hash, and give them a bath. “We had a rank order of who got in the bath,” Angela recalls. “My older brother went in first, then me and my sister went in, and then my mum went in. The same water.”

Angela’s mum grew up with her 12 siblings, and they were “very poor,” says Angela. “I would say even more poorer than what my upbringing was and I was on benefits. My mum and dad were on a giro, fortnightly, and we struggled as kids, but my mum’s upbringing was even harder.”

On the podium: Rayner with Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer and Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves

“My mum couldn’t read or write – still can’t – so she used to look at the pictures when she used to go round the supermarket,” she says. “She thought the dog food was stewing steak, and we’ve had shaving foam before now as cream.”

5. As a teenage mum, she used to scour the charity shops for clothes for her son

Angela understands, from her own experience, what it means to try to provide for your family under difficult circumstances.

“I remember scouring the charity shops when I was a young mum. I had Ryan when I was 16,” says the politician. “I’d get my income support and I’d walk for a couple of miles to the charity shops in Bramwell and it was like Christmas for me if I was able to get a nice outfit for Ryan in the charity shop. I thought like I’d done something, I’d been a good parent and I’d managed to achieve something.”

6. She thinks politicians from working class backgrounds should be open about their roots

“The truth is, there is also, across the whole of the house, people who have come from working class backgrounds, but for some reason politicians don’t talk about it,” says Angela. She says she sometimes gets criticised for talking about herself but states, “It’s not about me, it’s about the experiences people like me have faced, and I think it’s a good thing that people talk about their experience and background in that way.”

“I get so much abuse for people saying, pregnant at 16, no qualifications, she must be thick. Well I'm clearly not thick, because I wouldn’t be where I am. I’m one of the most successful politicians of my generation. My ability and my achievements have been, by any measure, as good as anybody else – whether privately educated or not.”

7. She thinks her and Keir Starmer’s differences make them stronger

“You can put me and Keir in a room; it’s pretty obvious we have very different personalities,” says Labour’s deputy leader. “We have the same aim and goals and values, but we are completely different people, and the way in which we express ourselves is completely different. That doesn’t make it wrong.”

“The way Keir deals with problems, the way in which he does things, is completely different to the way in which I would do them. I have a more emotional response, and he has a more sort of methodical response… But I actually think that means we complement each other extremely well, because we get both ends of the argument.”

“The confidence about Labour now is we know what our programme is and we’re a team. And it feels like we’re a team,” says Angela. “It feels like we know what our aims are and what we want to do in government and that we can hit the ground running. I’m very confident of that. More so than I’ve been in a very long time.”

“There’s a lot of in-depth work that’s been done that means that in all of our departments we know what we need to do from day one; we know how we’ll work together to tackle inequality and to make the country better for working people.”

9. Before she became a politician, she’d only been to London a handful of times

Rayner’s has been a rapid rise to the top. “In 2015 I came in as a brand-new politician,” she recounts. She wasn’t a special adviser; she wasn’t in the Westminster bubble. “I think I’d only been to London a handful of times as a union rep, so I came in very naïve to the political process and was thrust on to the frontbench within a couple of months and have been there for seven years.” She believes the public have noticed her grow in this time and she’s “earned respect”.

10. She doesn’t think she’s ready to be Labour leader (but she’s not ruling it out)...

Angela is just 42. The same age as the new Prime Minister. She’s not ruling out being the first female Labour leader, but for her, the priority now is getting Labour into power.

“I could have stood for leader, I chose not to at the last leadership because I didn’t feel I was ready for that and I wanted to learn a bit more and have a bit more experience,” she says. “I just want to do what’s right by the country and get us into government. I know what a Labour government can do for people. I’ve seen it. It’s changed my life… So, I’ll do whatever it takes; I’ll have whatever leader we have to have.”