In early September 2023, Angela Rayner was named Shadow Secretary of Levelling Up, Housing, Communities & Local Government in a Labour reshuffle. On Monday 16 October, Rayner came toe-to-toe with Michael Gove for the first time since taking on this position.
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Gove, who was sacked by Boris Johnson just days before the former PM announced his own resignation, was reappointed as the Secretary of State for Levelling Up by PM Rishi Sunak last year. The two took jabs at each other in the House of Commons as Rayner criticised Gove’s spending of funds and he made a dig about Rayner’s private life.
What Rayner said
In a heated exchange, Rayner asked Gove to explain why billions of pounds worth of funding were handed back to the Treasury from his department. She accused him of ‘coming out with flannel’:
He can dress it up however he likes. The truth is he couldn't spend this vital funding quickly enough in the middle of a housing crisis.
Rayner went on to bring Rishi Sunak - who was recently under fire for failing to hand his WhatsApp messages over to the Covid inquiry - into the discussion. She claimed that Rishi shared Gove’s ‘disregard for struggling families’ as:
In his hour-long speech in Manchester, the Prime Minister didn't mention housing a single time, not once.
She asked:
But the Housing Minister did tell conference that renters are weed smoking gangsters ... Can the Secretary of State assure us that despite the tone of those remarks, the Renters Reform Bill will not be scrapped before the King's Speech?
How Gove responded
Gove’s reply earned him cheers from fellow Tory MPs:
Yes, we are bringing reform to the rental market, but I note that at her own party conference the honourable lady shared with the public not just her policies but her recipe for the future.
Her recipe for a cocktail called Venom, which apparently contains a bottle of vodka, a bottle of Southern Comfort, 10 blue Wkds and a litre of orange juice.
He followed up with another dig, stating that the ‘real lethal cocktail from the Labour Party is: unfunded spending commitments, massive borrowing, green built development and hypocrisy on housing’.
Rayner’s shocking lifestyle
Gove is referring to comments made by Rayner herself about her passion for a drink and a good party. During an interview with comedian Matt Forde at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer, she explained that she was freshly back from a holiday in Spain where she had been drinking from mid-afternoon to the early hours of the morning.
She talked about this ‘venom’ cocktail which apparently left one guest 'curled up in the dog's bed with the dog'.
Rayner said:
The girls I was raving with are half my age, and I was like ‘I'm a grandma’. I was proud of that.
When Forde asked, Rayner denied she had taken any drugs, but said she enjoys ‘a good vape’. This habit came up again on today’s episode of ITV’s This Morning as Rayner sat down for a chat about Labour’s future plans with hosts Dermot O'Leary and Alison Hammond.
She confirmed that her kids hate that she vapes, and call her the ‘vape dragon’:
I started vaping to give up smoking and what my concern is now is you’ve got these kids who have never smoked who think it’s OK to vape.
Alongside her love for ‘raving’ and vaping, Rayner has previously admitted to a diet of unhealthy foods. Maybe this is all a stab at coming over as 'human' as possible, and it seems to have worked on This Morning: users on X have said she ‘comes across well, girl next door’ and called her ‘reasonable and honest’.
Read more:
⋙ Angela Rayner trending over recent grilling on BBC breakfast: Who is the Labour MP?
⋙ Alison Hammond: The presenter says hosting Great British Bake Off was 'meant to be'
Sources used:
Wales Online: Angela Rayner vows to quit vaping saying 'my kids hate it'
Express: Angela Rayner slapped down in brutal Commons swipe over her 'cocktail of Venom'
Express: Angela Rayner 'proud' of 12 hour vodka fuelled rave sessions on holiday in Spain
