Keir Starmer backs Angela Rayner’s sensational plot for cupboard return | Politics | News | EUROtoday

Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to carry the “hugely talented” Angela Rayner again into is Cabinet – and likewise advised she was the sufferer of misogyny. Ms Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour chief in September after an impartial ethics probe discovered she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp obligation on a seaside flat.

The Prime Minister stated in an interview with The Observer that he missed Ms Rayner and stated misogyny had performed a component within the stage of criticism she and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have obtained in current months. After describing Ms Rayner as “the best social mobility story this country has ever seen,” Sir Keir was requested if he missed his former deputy and stated: “Yes, of course I do. I was really sad that we lost her. As I said to her at the time, she’s going to be a major voice in the Labour movement.”

Pressed as as to if she shall be again within the Cabinet, he added: “Yes. She’s hugely talented.”

He additionally advised that misogyny had performed a component within the stage of criticism in opposition to Ms Rayner.

Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch argued throughout Prime Minister’s Questions final month that any return for Ms Rayner needs to be on the situation that “she must pay back the £40,000 of property taxes she avoided”.

Earlier this week, a supply near the previous deputy prime minister stated she is going to “not be played like a pawn” after stories of a deal for her and Health Secretary Wes Streeting to run for the Labour management.

The supply stated “there is no vacancy and there is no pact”, after The Daily Telegraph reported that allies of Mr Streeting had been urgent Ms Rayner to enroll to a “joint ticket” for the highest job.

Sir Keir insisted that he had no intention of stepping apart earlier than the subsequent election.

He stated: “When I took over the Labour party, everyone said to me, ‘you’re not going to be able to change the party’. We ignored that and carried on.

“Then they stated to me, ‘you are not going to have the ability to win an election’. We received a landslide Labour victory.

“Now, 17 months into a five-year Labour term, they say ‘you’re not able to change the country’.

“Every time we have been on this place, we have defied them. And that is what I intend to do.”

Ms Rayner, born Angela Bowen in 1980 in Stockport, Greater Manchester, grew up in a council estate amid challenging circumstances, leaving school at 16 without qualifications to care for her mother, who had autoimmune issues.

She later trained as a care worker and became a prominent trade unionist with Unison before entering politics.

Elected as the Labour MP for Ashton-under-Lyne in 2015, Ms Rayner rose swiftly within the party, becoming shadow education secretary and then shadow equalities minister. In 2020, she was elected deputy leader of the Labour Party under Sir Keir, positioning her as a key figure bridging the party’s left wing and leadership.

Following Labour’s landslide victory in the July 2024 general election, Sir Keir appointed her as Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, where she spearheaded initiatives on social housing and local governance reform.

The controversy surrounding Ms Rayner emerged in August 2025, when reports revealed she had underpaid stamp duty land tax (SDLT) by approximately £40,000 on an £800,000 seafront flat she purchased in Hove, East Sussex, in May 2025.

Ms Rayner had transferred her remaining interest in the family home in Ashton-under-Lyne to a trust for her disabled son in January 2025, following a partial transfer in 2023 after her divorce, and used the proceeds as a deposit for the Hove property.

Advised by lawyers at the time that she owned no other property and thus qualified for the standard SDLT rate of £30,000 rather than the higher rate for additional dwellings (£70,000), she later admitted the error after further legal review highlighted complex “deeming provisions” below tax regulation that handled the belief association as retaining her curiosity within the household residence.

The challenge drew intense media scrutiny, with questions raised in regards to the high quality of her tax recommendation from a household conveyancing agency, which clarified it didn’t present specialised belief or tax steerage.

On September 3, 2025, Ms Rayner self-referred the matter to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s impartial ethics adviser, who concluded on September 5 that she had breached the ministerial code by failing to hunt satisfactory specialist recommendation on her tax obligations.

In her resignation letter, Ms Rayner expressed deep remorse, stating she took full accountability for the error and had by no means supposed to keep away from the right fee, whereas Starmer responded with a handwritten word expressing disappointment at her departure and praising her as a trusted colleague and trailblazer for working-class backgrounds.

The resignation triggered a Cabinet reshuffle and a Labour deputy management contest, marking a big blow to Starmer’s authorities amid ongoing financial challenges, although Rayner maintained she would proceed advocating for her constituents and Labour’s core values from the backbenches.