It seems Angela Rayner isn’t such a ‘working class heroine’ after all…

TThe current dispute over donations to the Labour Party has been going on for some time, but the latest revelation about Angela Rayner’s alleged hiring of a photographer earning more than £57,000 a year is particularly disheartening.

She grew up in council housing, went to a state school – and unlike many of her colleagues and peers in Westminster, she worked her way up from the bottom. She herself has said that from the start of her working life she “always stood up for working people.” There’s no doubt about it: she’s made of different stuff – or at least she was. So what happened?

I have looked up to Rayner for a long time, especially as a working class woman myself who has also had to fight for her position and prove her worth at every level.

I’m a firm believer that when you get to that point and your situation changes, you have to pass things on. And that’s largely what Rayner does: provide a platform, raise important issues that affect the masses and their constituencies, and give a voice to the marginalized.

But if the allegations are true, I fail to see how using taxpayers’ money for a self-promotional photographer can be considered “standing up for working people” (despite what Rachel Reeves says about all government departments having a communications budget to promote their activities).

It’s a particularly bad look for Rayner because of how fiercely and refreshingly ‘normal’ she is – and how fiercely she criticised Boris Johnson for hiring ‘a cabal of vain photographers’ (who didn’t age well…).

Furthermore, her lame excuse that “all MPs do it” doesn’t really help her case. That may well be true (in fact, we know it does), but that doesn’t make it right. Labour’s historic election victory in July was supposed to herald a new era of much-needed change, transparency and integrity; yet here we are – some 80 days into Starmer’s premiership and we’re hearing the gory details of “gifts” including free dresses, glasses and Arsenal and Coldplay tickets. It’s more than disappointing – it’s utterly toneless.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s certainly not on the same level as what we’ve seen from the Tories over the past 14 years (breaking the Covid-19 rules they put in place; putting public relations above science and human life; accusations of rape and sexual misconduct; failing to negotiate a decent Brexit deal… the list goes on), but after just three months in power, Labour is already falling short.

I don’t personally hold Rayner in higher regard because she’s a woman, or because she’s from Stockport. Women are already held to an increasing double standard, whether they’re in the public eye or not – and I found the post-election swagger over Rayner’s £550 mint green ME+EM trouser suit particularly appalling, given that it was paid for out of her salary and has no bearing on her ability to do her job.

There is a strange story told to this day that people from poorer backgrounds should always stay on their own turf and never stoop to enjoy their hard-earned money for fear of forgetting ‘their roots’ (i.e. their place).

But Rayner should know better than to spend the public’s money on vanity. And if that is true and that is what happened, then she should apologize. She needs to know that we have certain expectations of her: yes, for the political party she belongs to and what they (apparently) stand for – but also just for herself.

Rayner is a working-class heroine. She also holds high office – and when you hold public office, your duty is to serve the public, not yourself.