The resurgence of Angela Rayner

On Monday evening, the Strangers’ Bar at Westminster was treated to a rare sight: Angela Rayner looking happy, smiling and holding court. As the newspapers went on the offensive over a new analysis of the Employment Rights Bill, which found it will cost business nearly £5 billion a year, the Deputy Prime Minister went to the Commons watering hole for a wine to celebrate the bill’s second reading.

It’s not just Rayner’s new deal for workers (now titled ‘make work pay’, following intense focus-grouping) that is giving her cause for fresh optimism. She is also enjoying a resurgence inside government after a tricky start. As Boris Johnson once said, ‘There are no disasters, only opportunities. And, indeed, opportunities for fresh disasters.’ While Keir Starmer navigates a route out of a difficult first 100 days and faces personal poll ratings of minus 30, there is a chance for his deputy to benefit.

Since Labour’s election victory, Rayner’s position has often been the subject of negative briefing. Pre-election talk of an office for the deputy proved premature: the gov.uk website states that ‘the current administration does not have a Deputy Prime Minister’s Office’. A Rayner ally points out that she actually has five: a departmental office for Housing and Local Government, one in the Cabinet Office complete with staff, her parliamentary office, her constituency office and one she occasionally uses in a Manchester government building.

There is another point of view. ‘The office is dead because Pat [McFadden] is the real deputy prime minister,’ says one Labour figure. The power of McFadden – the veteran Blairite who leads the Cabinet Office – is felt across government.