Angela Rayner: Labour's working-class warrior bounces back

Angela Rayner: Labour's working-class warrior bounces backImage source, PA MediaByJoshua NevettPolitical reporterPublished5 September 2025Updated 24 minutes agoEarlier this year, Angela Rayner was weighing up whether to reach for the Labour crown if Sir Keir Starmer's leadership was challenged.The resolution of an HMRC investigation into her tax affairs, long seen as a barrier to any leadership bid, cleared a path for the former deputy prime minister to take part in any contest to replace her old boss.But in the end she added her name to the wave of Labour MPs nominating Andy Burnham as leader, propelling the former Greater Manchester mayor into Downing Street uncontested.Now she has made a return to the cabinet, with Burnham giving her back the job of housing secretary from which she resigned in September last year, after admitting she did not pay enough tax on the purchase of a new home.It is a role in which she will play a key part in his drive to devolve power away from Westminster and deliver a major programme of council house building. Her against-the-odds story, personality, and ability to connect with parts of the electorate other politicians have struggled to reach are likely to make her a prominent voice within Burnham's top team. Tough upbringingBorn Angela Bowen in Stockport, Greater Manchester, in 1980, Rayner grew up on one of the area's poorest council estates and from an early age was caring for her mother, who had bipolar disorder and suffered from depression.Both Rayner's parents were unemployed and speaking in 2017, she remembered having to grow up very quickly."My mum was a really vulnerable person. I remember, at 10, my mum being suicidal and me sleeping like a dog on the end of her bed, just to try and stay next to her so she didn't do any harm to herself," Rayner said.She has also recalled going to her grandmother's flat on Sundays, so the family could take it in turns to have a bath there. Hot wate...