Angela Rayner denounces Tory ‘scum’ (again)

Labour’s conference began yesterday and already there’s a familiar feel to events. We’ve had the timeless Labour shenanigans over membership rules, with an under-fire leader forced to compromise for his union backers. The party’s youth wing is on the war path, amid claims of organisers using ‘dirty tricks’ against Young Labour to scupper attendance at their events. Len McCluskey has done his bit to ‘help’ another leader by claiming he’d have backed Scottish independence and Starmer can’t win the next election. And now a leading Labour frontbencher has overshadowed their major policy announcement with foul-mouthed comments about the Tories.

The frontbencher in question is, of course, Angela Rayner, the party’s deputy leader. Rayner, the subject of a glowing profile in yesterday’s Times, has managed to ruin Labour’s plans to abolish the VAT exemption on private schools with her comments at last night’s North West reception.