Keir Starmer Says ‘Hugely Talented’ Angela Rayner Will Return To Cabinet

Keir Starmer has said he believes Angela Rayner will come back to the cabinet, three months after she quit over a tax scandal.

The prime minister offered a robust endorsement of his former deputy when speaking to The Observer and said she was “the best social mobility story this country has ever seen”.

Rayner cared for her bipolar mother while growing up, then left school when she fell pregnant at 16.

She rose through the ranks of the Labour Party as a darling of the soft-left, and worked as the deputy Labour leader, deputy prime minister and housing secretary until September.

Rayner was forced to resign after it emerged she had paid around £40,000 less than she should have done on stamp duty when buying a second property earlier this year.

She has remained a backbencher as the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne ever since, but speculation she might want to return to frontline politics has risen recently amid growing questions about Starmer’s premiership.

Reports have claimed she might consider running on a joint ticket with health secretary Wes Streeting to challenge the PM’s leadership – although both Rayner and Streeting have denied any such pact.

Asked if he missed his colleague, Starmer said: “Yes, of course I do. I was really sad that we lost her. As I said to her at the time, she’s going to be a major voice in the Labour movement.”

And asked if he thought Rayner would be coming back to the cabinet, he said: “Yes. She’s hugely talented.”

He also claimed both Rayner and his chancellor Rachel Reeves have been subjected to misogyny in their jobs, adding: “All politicians get quite a lot of abuse these days but for women it’s always worse.”

Asked about the appetite for Rayner’s return on Sky News, cabinet minister Pat McFadden said: “I think Angela Rayner is great. I would welcome it, but it is a decision for the prime minister.”

When pressed further, he said: “I think she’s an enormous talent. I’m a great admirer of Angela, but that question is up to the PM.”