It seems Angela Rayner isn’t quite so ‘working class hero’ after all...

...how disappointing (and hypocritical), writes Emma Clarke. When it comes to taxpayers’ money and ‘gifts’, accountability is key

The deputy prime minister has been slammed for hiring a so-called ‘vanity photographer’ (Getty )

The current row over Labour party donations has been rumbling on for some time, but the latest revelation about Angela Rayner’s alleged hiring of a £57,000+-a-year photographer is particularly disheartening.

She grew up on a council estate, went to a state school – and, unlike many of her colleagues and peers at Westminster, has worked her way up from the bottom. She’s said herself that from the beginning of her working life she’s “always stood up for working people”. There’s no two ways about it: she’s cut from different cloth – or, at least, she was. So, what’s happened?

I have long looked up to Rayner – especially because I, too, am a woman from a working-class background, who has likewise had to fight for position and prove my worth at every level.

I fully believe that, when you get to that point and your situation changes, you should pay things forward – and, for the most part, that’s what Rayner does: offering a platform, raising key issues that impact the masses as well as her constituency and giving a voice to the marginalised.

But, if the claims are true, I don’t see how using taxpayers’ money for a self-promoting snapper can be classed as “standing up for working people” (despite what Rachel Reeves says about all government departments having communications budgets to use to promote their activities).

It’s an especially bad look for Rayner because of how fiercely, refreshingly “normal” she is – and how vehemently she slammed Boris Johnson for hiring “a coterie of vanity photographers”. That didn’t age well.

What’s more, her flimsy excuse that “all MPs do it” really doesn’t help her cause. That may well be the case (in fact, we know it is), but that doesn’t make it OK. Labour’s historic election win this July was supposed to usher in a new era of much-needed change, transparency and integrity; yet here we are – some 80 days into Starmer’s premiership and hearing icky details about “gifts” including free dresses, glasses and Arsenal and Coldplay tickets. It’s more than disappointing – it’s completely tone deaf.

Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s certainly not on the same level as what we have witnessed from the Tories for the past 14 years (breaking the Covid-19 rules they put in place; putting public relations above science and human life; allegations of rape and sexual misconduct; failing to negotiate a decent Brexit deal... the list goes on), but after barely three months in power, Labour is already falling short.

I do not personally hold Rayner to a higher account because she is a woman, or because she is from Stockport. Women are already held to an increasingly eye-watering double standard, whether they’re in the public eye or not – and I found the post-election chatter about Rayner’s £550 mint green ME+EM trouser suit particularly abhorrent, seeing as it was paid for with her salary and has no bearing on her ability to do her job.

There is also, to this day, a strange narrative pedalled that those from poorer beginnings must always stay in their lane and never enjoy their hard-earned money through fear of “forgetting their roots” (aka, their place).

But Rayner should know better than to spend the public’s cash on vanity. And, if true and that is what happened, then she should apologise. She must know we have certain expectations of her: yes, for the political party she belongs to and what they (apparently) stand for – but also just for herself.

Rayner is a working-class hero. She’s also in high office – and when you are in public office, you have a duty to serve the public, not yourself.