Angela Rayner (née Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician who has served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government since July 2024.

She successfully stood for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party in 2020, and held further Shadow Cabinet positions under Keir Starmer.

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.

[9][10] She later studied part-time at Stockport College, learning British Sign Language, and gaining a National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ) Level 2 in social care.

[4][11] 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.

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.

[13][14] In 2012 The Guardian featured a lengthy profile of Rayner as part of an article on a trade union officer's working life.

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.

In the days following she was appointed Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow First Secretary of State and Chair of the Labour Party.

[31] On 9 April 2020, the Labour Party announced that Rayner would deputise for Starmer opposite Dominic Raab during Prime Minister's Questions.

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.

[36] 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.

[37][38] Rayner condemned the late July and early August riots that started following the Southport stabbing, saying there is "no excuse for thuggery.

[43][44] In a 2017 interview to The Guardian which discusses her political beliefs, Rayner highlighted her pragmatism, describing herself as being part of the "soft left" of the Labour Party.

[47] In 2019 Rayner declared her support for the WASPI campaign for compensation for women affected by government pension age changes.

[51][52] Clarkson had been critical of Andy Burnham, who had been seeking financial support for Greater Manchester following local restrictions on businesses being introduced.

[53] Some Labour MPs, while saying it was not the language that they would have used, defended her comments, including Steve Reed, John McDonnell and Lisa Nandy.

[54] Keir Starmer distanced himself from her remarks, but said it was up to Rayner if she wanted to apologise or not,[53] while other Labour MPs condemned her in stronger terms.

[64][65] After the murder of George Floyd by police officer Derek Chauvin, Rayner supported the Black Lives Matter movement, and took a knee alongside Keir Starmer.

[78]On 24 April 2022, Rayner was the subject of a report in The Mail on Sunday, by Glen Owen, in which it was alleged that she had tried to distract Boris Johnson in the Commons by crossing and uncrossing her legs in a similar manner to Sharon Stone in a scene from the 1992 film Basic Instinct.

[79] The report was subsequently condemned by a range of voices across the political spectrum including Johnson and the Speaker of the House Lindsay Hoyle.

[81] In May 2022, Rayner said she would resign as Deputy Leader of the Labour Party if she received a fixed penalty notice for breaching COVID-19 regulations while campaigning during the run-up to the Hartlepool by-election and local elections the previous year.

[84] In March 2024, a former Conservative Party deputy chairman, Michael Ashcroft, alleged that Rayner had misled tax officials in the sale of her council house in 2015.

[97] During the Labour Party freebies controversy in September 2024, the Conservative Party referred Rayner to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, claiming that her "failure to properly register" the use of Waheed Alli, Baron Alli's $2.5 million New York apartment may have breached the House of Commons' code of conduct.