As Britain’s first female deputy prime minister, Angela Rayner is a poster girl for social mobility.
She certainly never misses a chance to highlight her rise from a humble upbringing on a Greater Manchester council estate or having a child at 16.
‘I’m proud of my background. It informs my Labour values and our party’s priorities,’ is her oft-repeated rallying call.
A former carer and trade union representative, Rayner’s roots were probably the last thing on her mind yesterday when she celebrated Mothering Sunday at a lavish £225-a-head lunch at London‘s Ritz Hotel.
Rayner tucked into beef wellington with a madeira and perigord truffle sauce washed down with Barons De Rothschild champagne. There was an exotic chocolate dish and ‘tea, coffee and frivolities’.
Nothing’s too good for the workers, eh Ange?
Sir Keir Starmer drew roars of approval from his MPs when he declared: ‘What did the Conservatives leave? Interest rates at 11 per cent.’
Migration minister Seema Malhotra made the same claim on X, saying: ‘Under the Tories: open borders, interest rates at 11 per cent, a £22 million black hole and 14 years of failings.’
The last time interest rates were at 11 per was in fact in 1991. As for the alleged black hole, the official government line is £22 billion, not £22 million. Maths has never been Labour’s strong point.
Musical theatre maestro Sir Tim Rice laments he doesn’t have a ‘magic wand’ to ‘remove solar panels from beautiful farmland’.
What a shame – he could have made Ed Miliband disappear, too.
Portrait of a very prickly President
President Trump last week called for the removal of a portrait in the Colorado State Capitol which depicts him as full-faced, cherubic, wrinkle-free large baby in a suit.
But he does like the bronze bust forged by Tory donor and eminent surgeon Nadey Hakim. It has pride of place in Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida.
Meanwhile, former Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter says Trump’s reputation preceded him when he visited publisher Conde Nast: colleagues called it ‘Don’t Bring Your Daughter to Work Day’.
Carter had already crossed swords with the property developer turned president. ‘I did this story on him for GQ in 1984 and commented that his hands were too small for his body. He hated it so much, he had his staff buy up all the copies in New York.’
Political observation of the week: Former Tory MP Michael Fabricant quips, ‘The human brain is an amazing organ. It keeps working 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. From before you leave the womb, right up until you vote Labour.’
Tory hereditary peer Earl Attlee pointed out that with his looming departure from the House of Lords, Parliament will lose its only qualified lorry driver.
Transport minister Lord Hendy, not the warmest of souls, replied that he himself was a qualified bus driver – a greater achievement since ‘the payload complains more’.
Tories pray for peace
Guests at the launch of my colleague Quentin Letts’s novel ‘Nunc!’ included Europhile former foreign office minister Sir Alan Duncan and Sasha Swire, diarist wife of Duncan’s former colleague Hugo Swire. Tricky. In her diaries she said Duncan exemplified ‘the smug sort of Remainer that I despise’.
Happily the party was held at St Matthew’s church, Westminster – sacred ground, and therefore no place for reprisals.
