Angela Rayner remains a powerful voice within the Labour Party despite her political downfall in the autumn.
Sir Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner (Image: Getty)
Sir Keir Starmer has pledged to bring the “hugely talented” Angela Rayner back into is Cabinet – and also suggested she was the victim of misogyny. Ms Rayner resigned as deputy prime minister, housing secretary and deputy Labour leader in September after an independent ethics probe found she had breached the ministerial code over her underpayment of stamp duty on a seaside flat.
The Prime Minister said in an interview with The Observer that he missed Ms Rayner and said misogyny had played a part in the level of criticism she and Chancellor Rachel Reeves have received in recent months. After describing Ms Rayner as “the best social mobility story this country has ever seen,” Sir Keir was asked if he missed his former deputy and said: “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.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch (Image: Getty)
Pressed as to whether she will be back in the Cabinet, he added: “Yes. She’s hugely talented.”
He also suggested that misogyny had played a part in the level of criticism against Ms Rayner.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch argued during Prime Minister’s Questions last month that any return for Ms Rayner should be on the condition that “she must pay back the £40,000 of property taxes she avoided”.
Earlier this week, a source close to the former deputy prime minister said she will “not be played like a pawn” after reports of a deal for her and Health Secretary Wes Streeting to run for the Labour leadership.
The source said “there is no vacancy and there is no pact”, after The Daily Telegraph reported that allies of Mr Streeting were pressing Ms Rayner to sign up to a “joint ticket” for the top job.
Sir Keir insisted that he had no intention of stepping aside before the next election.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting (Image: Getty)
He said: “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 said to me, ‘you’re not going to be able to win an election’. We got 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’ve been in this position, we’ve defied them. And that’s 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” under tax law that treated the trust arrangement as retaining her interest in the family home.
The issue drew intense media scrutiny, with questions raised about the quality of her tax advice from a family conveyancing firm, which clarified it did not provide specialized trust or tax guidance.
On September 3, 2025, Ms Rayner self-referred the matter to Sir Laurie Magnus, the Prime Minister’s independent ethics adviser, who concluded on September 5 that she had breached the ministerial code by failing to seek adequate specialist advice on her tax obligations.
In her resignation letter, Ms Rayner expressed deep regret, stating she took full responsibility for the mistake and had never intended to avoid the correct payment, while Starmer responded with a handwritten note expressing sadness 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 leadership contest, marking a significant blow to Starmer’s government amid ongoing economic challenges, though Rayner maintained she would continue advocating for her constituents and Labour’s core values from the backbenches.
