Angela Rayner had a very successful debate... against Liz Truss

The eighth participant in the seven-way BBC debate was the Tory prime minister who ‘crashed the economy’, according to the deputy Labour leader, writes John Rentoul

Rayner, left gave a strong performance in a crowded, disconnected and occasionally disorderly format (PA)

There were already too many people on stage in the BBC’s seven-way debate, including two politicians from Scotland and Wales representing parties most people cannot vote for. But Angela Rayner, the deputy Labour leader, introduced an eighth participant by repeatedly attacking Liz Truss for having “crashed the economy”.

Rayner gave a strong performance in a crowded, disconnected and occasionally disorderly format, speaking on behalf of the imminent Labour government. She had been placed, by the luck of the draw, next to Penny Mordaunt, representing the Conservative Party, who was at the end of the row, which meant that the main debate was at that end, with the other parties like a chorus offering a commentary on them.

The commentary from the minor parties was mostly “Labour and the Tories are the same”, to which Rayner had two answers. One was that she was going to be honest and not promise things that had not been costed – so no, she was not going to promise to lift the two-child limit on benefits.

The other was that Liz Truss crashed the economy, which helped drive a sharp wedge between her and Mordaunt.

Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform, was like a truth-telling jester at the far end of the platform. He started by saying, in answer to his second question, that he didn’t want people to vote for him. Or, rather, he said: “The NHS model is not working. The more money we spend, the less we get.”

He said we should have a health funding system like that in France, “as if it was a private company”. Given the popularity of the NHS, he might as well have said: “Don’t vote for us.”

After that, he was liberated to offer his commentary on Rayner versus Mordaunt, which was most entertaining. The election, he said, was between Keir Starmer – “Blair without the flair” – and “slippery Sunak”, and, he said, it was one of the worst campaigns ever.

He praised Rayner, saying “the real leader of the Labour Party is here on the stage – at least she’s got some personality”, but he said that the trouble with “the arguments on the other side of the room is that they don’t really disagree about anything”.

This was not true. Rayner and Mordaunt disagreed about what Liz Truss had done to the economy, once Mordaunt had got the preliminaries out of the way, saying – three times – that the prime minister had been “completely wrong” to bunk off early from Normandy. When Rayner said Liz Truss had crashed the economy, winning her first applause of the night, Mordaunt said: “Even Liz Truss on her worst day believed in nuclear deterrence.”

Rayner stayed with the abrupt change of subject, rebutting it instantly: “And so do I; so do I.”

Liz Truss had gone “fast and loose” with the economy, Rayner said. Mordaunt stuck to her lines with a clunky persistence. We had been through tough times and “we are now in the recovery”, she said, but Labour would put up taxes by £2,000.

Again, Rayner’s reaction was immediate, unlike Starmer’s in the leaders’ debate on Tuesday: “That is a lie.” She was backed up by Mishal Husain, the BBC presenter, and all three of them – four, if you included Liz Truss – talked over each other for a bit.

Mordaunt said: “Twelve new taxes.” Rayner responded with, “We have absolutely guaranteed we won’t raise taxes for working people,” which sounded rather more emphatic than what Rachel Reeves, the shadow chancellor, has said.

Mordaunt came back to the £2,000 later, and Rayner contradicted it again before she had finished her sentence: “That’s your figure, it’s rubbish.”

As Farage said, Rayner’s personality dominated Mordaunt, who sometimes seemed to have difficulty remembering her lines. At the end of the debate, Farage seemed to be proved right about there being no difference between the two main parties, when Rayner and Mordaunt shook hands warmly.

But there had been sharp disagreements between them during the debate itself, which Rayner won – the “real Labour leader” being greatly assisted by the straw woman, the eighth person in the debate: the deeply unpopular Liz Truss.