Rayner and Badenoch row on first day back

It was the Commons at its best: the whole House, united in agreement on one key matter. MP after MP took a stand against the critics to support a colleague. All of them wanted to praise Angela Rayner’s dancing while on holiday. They were back in the Commons after recess for Housing, Communities and Local Government questions, and despite the cross-party unity on the Secretary of State’s boogieing, the session was pretty spicy.

For one thing, Kemi Badenoch was on the opposite benches, and used the session as a second leadership launch. She deployed her characteristic charming turn of phrase when asking Rayner questions, including telling the minister that she clearly hadn’t read a review they were talking about. That exchange ran thus:

Badenoch: Can the right honourable lady give me her assessment of the Khan review into social cohesion?

Rayner: Well, the Khan review into social cohesion is one part and element of what we need to do to get back to addressing the issues of community cohesion as opposed to the divisiveness in the way in which the previous government looked at community cohesion.