Pointing out Angela Rayner is working class is not the compliment you think it is ...Middle East

One is that of an Eton and Oxford-educated Baronet with a career behind him as a city financier. The other emerged from Avondale High School in Stockport with no qualifications after dropping out at 16 after she became pregnant. Her own mother, one of 12 kids born to unemployed parents, had bipolar disorder and struggled to cope.

Could the lives of Angela Rayner and the Prime Minister’s independent adviser Sir Laurie Magnus be any different?

Yet despite having lived two very different lives, there is one thing the pair have in common – they are both highly regarded as exceptionally good operators.

All that and she gets stuff done – the workers’ rights bill which gives employees greater protections, and ends exploitative zero-hours contracts and fire-and-rehire processes by bad bosses, is one of the most popular policies of the past year. Her swift action on housebuilding and planning will do much to end a housing crisis that has blighted this nation for decades.

But Laurie Magnus is equally well respected, intelligent and has an ability to get things done. It took him just six days to conclude that former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi had breached the Ministerial Code over his tax affairs, and eight days to report on “regrettable” actions by city minister Tulip Siddiq which led to her standing down.

There has been much talk in recent days among Labour colleagues of Angela’s “humble background”.

Science Minister Peter Kyle also defended his colleague, saying: “Just because it is Angela, with her accent and her background, people are treating her in a way they wouldn’t [other people].”

square ALISON PHILLIPS

Trumpism has come to a quiet Nottinghamshire town

And I wonder how Rayner must feel about such language. Amid the pain of realising her mistake, does she once again feel she is being pointed at as the “humble” outsider – just as she was once pointed at as the poorest of the poor on her estate?

The Starmer Cabinet is the most working-class ever. After last July’s election The Sutton Trust found 92 per cent of Cabinet ministers were educated at comprehensive schools. One went to an independent school and one to a grammar, and 40 per cent went to Oxford or Cambridge.

However, while this current Cabinet has been more reflective of the wider country than any that has gone before, beyond it too much of public life remains dominated by those who have been born into money, confidence and an expensive education.

Or as author David Sturrock wrote: “It may be harder now than at any point in over half a century to move up if you are born in a position of disadvantage.”

Angela’s superpower has never been her “humble background”. Yes, that has informed her politics. But her success has been built on an astute mind, the ability to negotiate and to persevere. And, perhaps, too many people underestimating her too.

Alison Phillips is a former editor of the Daily Mirror

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