Angela Rayner

Angela Rayner (née Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician and trade unionist who has been Labour and Co-operative Member of Parliament (MP) for Ashton-under-Lyne since 2015. She served as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party from 2020 to 2025, and as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government from July 2024 until her resignation in September 2025. Ideologically she identifies as a socialist and as part of Labour's soft left.

Rayner was born and raised in Stockport, where she attended the comprehensive Avondale School. She left school aged 16 whilst pregnant and without any qualifications. She later trained in social care at Stockport College and worked for the local council as a care worker. She eventually became a trade union representative within Unison, during which time she joined the Labour Party. She was selected to contest Ashton‑under‑Lyne in 2014 and was elected for the seat at the 2015 general election.

From 2016 until 2020 Rayner held several Shadow Cabinet positions under Jeremy Corbyn. She successfully stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2020, and held further Shadow Cabinet positions under Keir Starmer. Following Labour's victory in the 2024 general election, Rayner entered government and was appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by Starmer in his government; she resigned from both roles in September 2025 after a report concluded she had broken the Ministerial Code by underpaying stamp duty on a property purchase, which she had admitted to.

Early life and career

Angela Bowen was born on 28 March 1980 in Stockport, Greater Manchester. She grew up in poverty on a council estate with her older brother and younger sister and says she could have been taken into care. Her mother's bipolar disorder impacted the family; Rayner has stated: "When I was young, we didn't have books because my mother could not read or write." Her website describes how, "[f]or the most part, I was raised by my grandma who worked at three jobs to put food on the table and didn't stop until the day she died – three days before her 65th birthday."

Rayner attended Avondale High School in Stockport. At age 16, she became pregnant and left school without obtaining any qualifications. She later studied part-time at Stockport College, a school of further education learning British Sign Language, and gaining a National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) Level 2 in social care. Rayner has spoken about how the Sure Start centres of the New Labour governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown assisted her as a young mother with little support.

Rayner worked for Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council as a care worker for a number of years. During this time, she was also elected as a trade union representative for Unison. She was later elected as convenor of Unison North West, becoming the union's most senior official in the region, during which time she joined the Labour Party. In 2012 The Guardian featured a lengthy profile of Rayner as part of an article on a trade union officer's working life.

Parliamentary career

All the previous MPs who have represented my historic constituency have had one thing in common that I do not share: they have all been men. Today, I stand here making my maiden speech as the first woman MP to serve Ashton-under-Lyne in 183 years, and, as the first woman MP, I promise that I will do all in my power to live up to the examples shown by my predecessors. Of course, I could never fill their shoes—mine tend to have three-inch heels and to be rather more colourful—but I walk in their footsteps. We are different, and I will be different, but we are equal too.

In 2013 she sought selection to be the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Manchester Withington. However, Jeff Smith was selected and has been the incumbent since 2015.

In September 2014 Rayner was selected as the Labour Party's prospective parliamentary candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne. She was elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne at the 2015 general election with 48.1% of the vote and a majority of 10,756 votes. She made her maiden speech in the House of Commons on 2 June 2015. At the 2017 general election, Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with an increased vote share of 60.4% and an increased majority of 11,295 votes. At the 2019 general election Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with a decreased vote share of 48.1% and a decreased majority of 4,263. At the 2024 general election Rayner was re-elected as MP for Ashton-under-Lyne with a decreased vote share of 43.9% and an increased majority of 6,791.

Rayner nominated Andy Burnham in the 2015 Labour leadership election, but was one of just 18 MPs to back the incumbent Jeremy Corbyn against Owen Smith in the 2016 leadership election.

Shadow minister (2016–2024)

On 1 July 2016, after a series of resignations from the shadow cabinet in protest at his leadership, Corbyn appointed Rayner as Shadow Secretary of State for Education. She supported the notion of a 'National Education Service' to be modelled along similar lines to the National Health Service (NHS), also promoting an increase in funding for early years education. She was considered by some as a possible future Labour leader.

Deputy Labour leader (2020–2025)

Rayner did not stand for the Labour leadership in the 2020 leadership election, and supported Rebecca Long-Bailey, who came second to Keir Starmer. However, Rayner stood for the deputy leadership in the 2020 deputy leadership election. She achieved sufficient support from affiliates to qualify for the final ballot on 20 January, at which point she also had the greatest number of nominations from CLPs. The results were announced on 4 April 2020, with Rayner announced as the winner and becoming deputy leader, succeeding Tom Watson.

In the days following she was appointed Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow First Secretary of State and Chair of the Labour Party. Rayner was appointed to the Privy Council on 12 February 2021. On 9 April 2020 the Labour Party announced that Rayner would deputise for Starmer opposite Dominic Raab during Prime Minister's Questions. She deputised opposite Raab during Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak's premierships, and also deputised opposite Oliver Dowden during the Sunak premiership.

Rayner was removed from her roles as the Labour Party's chair and national campaign coordinator in a reshuffle by Starmer on 8 May 2021, following the 2021 local elections. She was subsequently appointed Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Shadow Secretary of State for the Future of Work.

On 4 September 2023 Starmer appointed Rayner as shadow levelling up secretary, and shadow deputy prime minister. Rayner's strong support base and potential as a future leader led to the New Statesman ranking her as the eighth most powerful person in British left-wing politics for 2023.

On 5 September 2025, Rayner resigned as the deputy leader and from her ministerial position and as the deputy prime minister following the prime minister's ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, finding that she had breached the ministerial code in relation to her failure to pay the correct amount of tax on one of her properties.

Deputy prime minister (2024–2025)

Following Labour's landslide victory in the election and the formation of the Starmer ministry, Rayner was appointed to the government as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (known as Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities until 9 July 2024) by Starmer in his government on 5 July 2024.

Rayner condemned the late July and early August riots that started following the Southport stabbing, saying there is "no excuse for thuggery." In her first speech at the Labour Party Conference as Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner opened the conference and said "I want to start off with a thanks to the British people. You entrusted us with the task of change and we will not forget it. You kept faith with us and we will keep faith with you."

As Deputy Prime Minister, Rayner has deputised for Starmer at Prime Minister's Questions on four occasions, respectively facing Oliver Dowden, Alex Burghart, Chris Philp and Mel Stride, jokingly saying during the former she would miss her and Dowden's "battle of the gingers".

In July 2025, her membership of Unite, one of the largest trade unions in the UK, was suspended during an escalating dispute with the Starmer government over their role in bin strikes in Birmingham, with media speculation focusing on a possible disaffiliation of the union from the Labour Party. However Rayner has insisted that she was not a member of Unite at that time.