Steerpike Steerpike

Angela Rayner denounces Tory ‘scum’ (again)

Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

Labour’s conference began yesterday and already there’s a familiar feel to events. We’ve had the timeless Labour shenanigans over membership rules, with an under-fire leader forced to compromise for his union backers. The party’s youth wing is on the war path, amid claims of organisers using ‘dirty tricks’ against Young Labour to scupper attendance at their events. Len McCluskey has done his bit to ‘help’ another leader by claiming he’d have backed Scottish independence and Starmer can’t win the next election. And now a leading Labour frontbencher has overshadowed their major policy announcement with foul-mouthed comments about the Tories.

One long-suffering moderate buried his head in his hands when being told what his deputy leader had said

The frontbencher in question is, of course, Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader. Rayner, the subject of a glowing profile in yesterday’s Times, has managed to ruin Labour’s plans to abolish the VAT exemption on private schools with her comments at last night’s North West reception. Speaking to a room full of hacks, delegates and various party apparatchiks, Rayner launched into a full blown rant against the government, claiming: ‘I’m sick of shouting from the sidelines, and I bet you lot are too. We cannot get any worse than a bunch of scum, homophobic, racist, misogynistic, absolute pile… of banana republic… Etonian… piece of scum… that I have ever seen in my life’ adding that ‘she held back a little.’ What fabulous self-restraint. 

Rayner’s diatribe has not exactly gone down well on social media, with her former colleague ex Labour MP Ian Austin remarking sarcastically: ‘Great message – going to win back lots of voters.’ And it’s not just online where the comments have landed badly. Mr S witnessed one long-suffering moderate in the Hilton bar burying his head in his hands when being told what his deputy leader had said while another was simply shown a screenshot and immediately ordered a stiff drink without comment.

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