Angela Rayner has had an eventful start as a relatively new MP. From being the first woman to secure the seat of Ashton-Under-Lyne in 2015, to becoming the Shadow Education Secretary in just two years.

By Sam Gosling

Coming from a non-traditional background, the 37-year-old mother of three is bringing a fresh voice to parliament with life experiences that other MPs have only read about. Growing up in Failsworth, Rayner was brought up on a tough council estate. Her mother was bipolar and a manic depressive, and she was regularly bullied as a child for being “the hyperactive poor kid with ginger hair”. Pregnant at 16 with no formal education, it is a testament to her character that she has not only survived, but has put herself in the position to become the next leader of the Labour Party.

“It was a difficult upbringing. Even on council estates there is a hierarchy, we didn’t have a big family name or anything like that to protect me so I was regularly bullied. My mum was manic depressive and bipolar. When I was ten years old, I remember she said she wanted to kill herself and I sat on her bed all night to stop her as I was convinced she would do it that night. I was a street kid, by 14 I was going out to clubs and socialising with adults, I needed to express myself in some way as school wasn’t doing it for me. Some people thrive in education, I wasn’t one of them.”

Rayner has been a big advocate for early years education in her time as the Shadow Education Minister. She feels it is vital to make children “school ready” and more importantly, to make sure they are being properly nourished at home and at school to allow them to reach their full potential.

“I wasn’t anywhere near school-ready when I went to school. I had never even seen a book; my mum couldn’t read or write. I was made to feel thick at school because I was behind all my fellow students and I was much more of a practical learner than one who can learn from a book. It is so important that we give early years education the attention it needs. Kids are going to school hungry and not school-ready and this has to stop. I was regularly hungry growing up, I felt actual pain from hunger. Our fridge was always empty and I had to go to my friend’s houses and get them to ask their parents if I could stay for dinner. How many other MPs could say that? I’m not saying that I am the only one who has been through a tough upbringing but I certainly feel that I add something to parliament with my life experiences.”

Although many people would be fooled into putting Angela Rayner in the ‘Team Corbyn’ camp, due to her loyalty to the leader during the Labour Party leadership challenges, they might be surprised to hear that Rayner is not averse to praising Tony Blair and Gordon Brown for the work they did in government.

“Nobody agrees with everything any leader does. Tony Blair’s government started the Sure Start centres that changed my life. I was pregnant at 16 and had no qualifications and those groups saved me. They taught me how to be a better mother than my own and helped me to keep my eldest son Ryan. I
attended evening classes and gained my Level 2 in Care.

“Those centres are disappearing today and, as are a lot of courses, where are people’s second chances today? We are writing off a whole generation. I don’t agree with everything a leader does, Gordon, for example, introduced tax credits, which really did save me, but he did things I disagreed with like the PFI situation.”

The Labour Party, after electing Jeremy Corbyn as its leader, turned on him and mass resignation by MPs followed. Rayner was one of the few MPs who stayed loyal to her leader. We asked her why and what she thought of the people who rebelled.

“I didn’t vote for Jeremy. I voted for Andy Burnham, I believe he is the best leader we never had and I’m thrilled he is the Mayor of Greater Manchester now as he deserves it. I was a relatively new MP at the time and I had to make a choice. I just felt the public would think “how dare they not let us have the leader we chose, who do they think they are?” Jeremy won fair and square. Twice. Whether you agree or disagree with him, you know that he wants to make the world a better place and he has integrity. I think the MPs who challenged him were wrong. It was a time when the Tories were on their knees, Cameron had gone and we had an opportunity to unite and progress. The infighting did not help. I genuinely feel that they did what they thought was right; they believed Jeremy was taking the party into a very dark place. The election results have vindicated him though.”

Making that stand for a new MP must have been a daunting prospect when senior MPs were all putting pressure on the MPs to follow them and step down. Rayner stayed loyal and, politically, it seems to have been a good decision for her, as she has had the opportunity to take one of the top jobs in the shadow cabinet.

“At the time, it felt like political suicide to be honest. I thought my career was over. We genuinely didn’t know whether he would hold on over the weekend. It was probably the most difficult period of my life. I had no staff left, no ministers, lots of work to do with grammar schools and SAT results. It was real sink or swim moment. It came at a huge personal sacrifice for me too. I gained weight, I didn’t see my family and barely slept for 6 months! My new staff were brilliant though and I couldn’t have done it without them and the unions who really stepped up and helped me. We came through it and we now are on top of our brief and feel like we are in government, the way we are being attacked by the Tories.”

Being recognised as a public figure comes with its problems. As the TV appearances increase, so can abuse, particularly on social media. We ask Rayner how much abuse she gets and if she feels that more can be done to tackle the issue of online trolls?

“I get a lot of online abuse. I dread doing any TV as I know it will follow. Regardless of whether it is Piers Morgan or Andrew Marr, it doesn’t make any difference. The comments I receive after these interviews are horrible. It is hard because it is public, my kids look at it. I have to tell them not to reply but, to see someone calling your mum those things is difficult for them. The abusers hide behind anonymous accounts. This I feel is a huge problem. Twitter is great but something needs to be done about the anonymous accounts.”

Rayner faces people mocking the way she talks, and her lack of education, daily. We asked her if she is affected by this and if she feels there is a snobbery in Westminster and the media towards her?

“I get a lot of comments about the way I talk. They say I sound thick. This is just my accent and I don’t speak any differently to anyone around where I am from. There is a snobbery in the media. It’s a case of “how dare she?”, they never took me seriously. That has changed a bit now. I am proud of who I am and where I come from, I spent years being ashamed of myself; when I was pregnant at 16, I was embarrassed and I didn’t do well at school and was told I was thick. I wasn’t; I just wasn’t school ready and I was hungry as a child. I wasn’t given the enriching environment to reach my full potential.”

It is clear that Angela Rayner fell through the gaps in the education system and that educators failed to spot that she wasn’t “school ready”. Is the situation any better today and can more be done to spot these cases?

“I think a lot more needs to be done. It is important to spot things early, as speech and language in those early years is vital. We need investment in early years. That’s why I was so proud to be asked to author the Labour Party plan for a National Education Service. Free education from cradle to grave. It is a lot of money (over £20 billion) we are proposing be put into it, but it is costed and we will get the money from reversing the corporation tax the Tories put in place. Under Thatcher, it was at around 30% and it is just about to reduce to 17%. You can see the damage it is doing to our public services. The state should have a lifelong learning approach. Education is a human right and should be free for all.”

With Jeremy Corbyn recently under fire for supposedly backtracking plans to wipe graduate debt, we asked the Shadow Education Secretary if she believed the criticism was fair?

“Jeremy never committed to wiping graduate debt. It is not in our manifesto. He did say he would look at it and that is precisely what he is doing. It is a treasury issue and he and John McDonnell have set up a working group to see what can be done, but you have to be realistic. It is a much more complex issue than simply wiping the debt. What about people who have already repaid it? Would that be fair on them to forgive debt when they paid theirs back? The government and media are unfairly saying Jeremy said he would wipe it. Look at the election campaign; why didn’t they bring it up then? Because it never happened. As Shadow Education Secretary, I acknowledge that the debt is an issue; with the fees going up, you are looking at leaving university with over £57,000 debt and that adds pressure to a person starting a new career. We would scrap tuition fees from day one.”

Can anything can be done about the current student debt?

“It’s about priorities. At the moment, my focus has to be on children who are going to school hungry and making sure teachers have the resources to teach our children. I can’t make any promises on graduate debt but it is being looked at. The government could do things to help immediately if they wanted to, like reducing the interest rates. It will be 6.1% come September; they could make it the same as the Bank of England base rate which is 1.25%. The threshold for paying back is £21,000 when average earnings are £26,000. Things can be done. Labour will make education free from day one of being in power.”

Some people within the Labour Party believe that Rayner is going to be the next leader. She pleases the left with her loyalty to Corbyn and she pleases the right with her refusal to condemn Blair and the things his government did. We asked her if she holds ambitions to be the next party leader?

“Ha-ha, I have seen what it has done to Jeremy! In all seriousness though, I became an MP because I wanted to help people and to make the lives of the people around me better. I still feel like I am punching above my own weight to be honest. When I was a carer, I wanted to change things as the treatment of our elderly was terrible. Every road led to the Government so I decided to become an MP. If I felt like, by becoming leader of the Labour Party, I could change things for the better and make an impact on the people of this country then, yes, I would happily do that.”

Angela Rayner is undoubtedly a rising star in British politics. She is bold, brash and unafraid to speak her mind she brings a real personality with real experiences to the table. Whether she will become the next leader of the Labour party one day, only time will tell, but one thing is for certain, Angela Rayner is here to stay.