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They promised to be our protectors, strong enough to call out the malevolent and wicked Tories, writes Onward's Joanna Marchong
The Tories were in government for 14 years and they got up to all kinds of mischief. Labour, in opposition, fought that corrupt, evil government.
They were our protectors, strong enough to call out the immoral, malevolent and wicked Conservative Party. “Our democracy... needs independent and robust protection from Conservative corruption.”
That is what Rayner said at the Institute for Government on November 29, 2021 – my birthday, no less. Her gift she promised to me and others: a sensible, morally just government.
A lot has changed since then. Over four years have passed, and Labour is in power.
Rayner entered government, was then thrown out of government (well, resigned in scandal), and is now back in office. Well, back after doing the same things she vowed a Labour government would never do.
This week, The Telegraph revealed Rayner accepted £20,000 from a firm that organises investment trips for oil executives seeking new oil exploration opportunities. Odd company for her to keep considering.
In 2022, Rayner voted for a windfall tax on oil and gas producers. She then doubled down on that vote by voting to strip out the £1.9billion-a-year relief the industry had been handed to soften the blow, just five months later.
So, there are two things we can confirm Rayner is in favour of: the oil industry paying the Government more and the oil industry paying her more.
This week’s news builds into a wider pattern of behaviour. Two weeks before her speech at the Institute for Government, Rayner went on the Andrew Marr Show and said: “The Labour Party is very clear that we want to ban second jobs, yes."
This was said in the midst of a row over Jeffrey Cox; he was the attorney general up until February 2020, but on leaving office he went back to being a “consultant global counsel” on £468,000 a year for 48 hours of work a month. A very plush gig and Labour called it as much: "Only Labour's motion takes the action we need on dodgy second jobs."
Between February and May this year, while out of office after resigning over her own unpaid stamp duty, with HMRC still going through her tax affairs, Rayner was paid £59,000 for just over 11 hours of speaking. A little over £5,000 an hour.
Another engagement earned her £19,000 for about half a day’s work from the Management Consultancies Association. Then, in May, she received a £61,500 advance from Bodley Head for a book she has yet to write.
That is £120,500 in four months. All from second jobs while taking a break from the office.
I wonder what the Labour government or past Rayner would call that. A scandal? A plush gig? After all, Rayner's hourly rate seems to be much higher than Cox's.
Real interest should lie in the even bigger sums that Rayner or Rayner-adjacent businesses have banked. On January 22, Rayner became a director of a company called The Office of Angela Rayner Limited.
And it has been quite successful. From December last year to this May, the register records over £240,000 in donations to staffing and running costs.
Now, MPs taking donations towards staffing is ordinary. Most frontbenchers do it.
Andy Burnham declared £345,000 of it on his way into Downing Street. But £240,000 is quite a lot for someone out of office with no shadow portfolio or government job.
Not to mention £150,000 of it comes from a single company called "Refrigeration House Limited", located on Quebec Street, Oldham.
Incorporated in October 2024, listed as a business providing "activities of property unit trusts". If you want more information, do not bother; the company has had three owners and has never filed accounts.
In that same speech on my birthday in 2021, Rayner also said: "Corruption – that is the word – is happening in plain sight… If you break the rules, there should be clear consequences. Labour's independent integrity and ethics commission will stamp out Conservative corruption and restore trust in public office."
